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AGRICULTURAL 
LIBRARY, 

UNIVERSITY 

— OF— 

_^LlFORNlA. 


COMMEMOEATIVE 

ADDRESSES. 

1862-1887. 

Massachusetts  Agricultural  CoUvige. 


■7' 


MASSACHUSETTS    AGRICULTURAL     COLLEGE. 


ADDRESSES 


DELIVERED  AT  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  AGRICULTURAL   COLLEGE, 
JUNE  21st,  1887,  ON  THE  25th  ANNF 
PASSAGE  OF  THE  MORRILL 
ACT. 


AMHERST,  MASS.: 
J.  PI  Williams,  Book  and  Job  Print"er. 

1887. 


Main   J.ih. 
Agric.    Dei^t 


f^.-' 
^f 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESS 


Charles  Kendall  Adams,  LL.  D., 
President  of  Cornell  University. 


THE  MORRILL  LAND  GRANT. 

It  was  a  remarkable  evidence  of  the  confidence  and  the  composure 
of  our  federal  legislature  that  in  1862,  just  twenty-five  years  ago, 
they  were  able  to  give  their  thoughts  to  the  framing  of  that  far- 
reaching  act,  in  commemoration  of  which  we  are  to-day  assembled. 
It  was  at  one  of  the  most  anxious,  if  not  one  of  the  darkest  periods 
of  our  terrible  war.  The  first  great  organized  advance  of  the  feder- 
al forces  was  just  coming  to  a  disastrous  end.  The  Peninsula  Cam- 
paign in  which  were  centered  all  the  nation's  hopes  had  taken  time 
for  the  most  complete  preparation  in  order  that  no  repulse  might  be 
possible.  Fair  Oaks,  Gaines  Mill,  Mechanicsville,  Cold  Harbor, 
Malvern  Hill, — names  that  even  now  send  a  shudder  into  thousands 
of  American  horjcies, — had  followed  in  rapid  succession,  and  our  baf- 
fled army  took  up  its  retreat  on  the  second  of  July,  the  very  day  on 
which,  by  the  signature  of  the  President,  the  act  in  which  we  have 
now  so  much  interest,  became  a  law.  Little  did  the  people  think 
that  at  the  very  moment  they  were  watching,  with  bated  breath  and 
tearful  eyes  for  every  new  sign  of  success  or  repulse,  there  was  go- 
ing forward  to  completion  in  the  halls  of  legislation  at  the  National 
Capitol,  a  great  act  of  statesmanship  which  in  after  years  would 
bring  the  people  together,  as  we  are  assembled  here  to-day. 

And  yet  a  great  act  of  statesmanship  it  was.  In  the  few  moments 
I  shall  detain  you  it  will  be  my  effort  to  show  that  its  spirit  was  con- 
ceived in  accordance  with  the  best  traditions  of  our  country,  that  its 


272142 


provisions  were  in  harmonious  accord  with  the  general  spirit  of  the 
time,  and  that  it  was  fraught  witli  the  means  of  incalculable  advan- 
tage to  the  nation.  To  these  three  considerations,  then,  I  briefly  in- 
vite jour  attention. 

Within  the  last  twenty-five  years  the  policy  of  rendering  national 
and  state  aid  to  educational  institutions  has  sometimes  been  gravely 
questioned.  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  work  of  education,  in  any 
other  than  a  purely  elementary  sense,  should  be  left  to  the  care  of 
private  benevolence.  This,  however,  was  not  the  doctrine  of  the 
fathers.  As  was  so  eloquently  shown  fifty  years  ago,  when  the  ora- 
tor selected  to  represent  Harvard,  and  Amherst,  and  Williams  plead- 
ed the. cause  of  the  colleges  before  the  Legislature  of  Massachu- 
setts, it  was  the  states  acting  in  their  organized  capacity,  that  pro- 
vided for  the  means  of  higher  education  as  well  as  for  the  common 
schools. 

Look  at  the  facts  of  that  early  history.  Years  before  the  famous 
common  school  law  was  passed,  provision  had  been  made  for  the 
founding  of  a  college,  by  means  of  a  tax  levied  upon  the  whole  peo- 
ple of  the  Colony.  As  Mr.  Everett  said,  scarcely  had  the  feet  of 
the  Pilgrims  taken  hold  of  Plymouth  Rock,  when  a  year's  rate  of  the 
Colony  was  levied  in  order  that  the  higher  learning  might  have  a 
home  in  the  New  World.  Nor  was  the  child  of  this  parentage  left 
to  any  such  precarious  support  as  might  be  afforded  by  private  be- 
nevolence. The  Court  Records  of  Massachusetts  in  the  colonial 
period  are  sprinkled  over  with  evidences  of  the  most  solicitous  care. 
It  was  in  the  days  of  poverty.  The  subsistence  of  the  president 
and  the  professors  or  tutors,  as  they  were  then  called,  was  immedi- 
ately dependent  on  the  bounty  of  the  commonwealth.  Appropria- 
tions for  buildings  and  for  lands  were  from  time  to  time  made.  The 
income  of  the  ferry  between  Boston  and  Cambridge  was  appropriated 
by  the  General  Court  to  the  use  of  the  college.  The  legislature  se- 
lected the  controlling  board.  In  short,  Harvard  College  was  an  in- 
stitution of  the  government,  founded  by  it,  supported  by  it  and  con- 
trolled by  it.  Before  the  days  of  independence  arrived,  more  than 
a  hundred  different  statutes  had  been  spread  upon  the  legislative 
record  for  the  purpose  of  guiding  and  assisting  this  child  of  the  in- 
fant state.  Even  in  the  constitution  of  1780  it  was  declared  forever 
to  be  the  duty  of  the  legislature  to  encourage  higher  learning  and 
especially  the  University  at  Cambridge.  And  it  was  not  until  the 
sons  of  the  college  had  multiplied  and  grown  rich,   that   the  legisla- 


ture  said  to  them  as  late  as  1865  :  you  can  now  care  for  your  benig- 
uant  mother  better  than  I  can,  therefore  I  pension  her  off  and  en- 
trust her  fortunes  to  your  generous  keeping. 

The  policy  of  Massachusetts  was  the  policy  of  Connecticut. 
Long  before  Elihu  Yale  gave  the  finalimpulse  for  the  founding  of 
the  college  which  was  to  bear  his  name,  the  General  Court  had  care- 
fully considered  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution.  The  sub- 
ject was  postponed  from  time  to  time,  not  because  there  was  any 
question  as  to  the  propriety  of  founding  such  an  institution  ;  but  be- 
cause the  population  was  as  3^et  too  sparse  and  too  poor  to  furnish  the 
pupils  for  two  colleges  in  New  England.  And  so  it  was  not  till  more 
than  sixty  years  had  passed  after  the  founding  of  Harvard  that  the 
second  New  England  College  was  established.  But  after  its  estab- 
lishment its  history  was  much  like  that  of  its  elder  sister.  During 
the  whole  of  the  last  century,  as  the  first  President  Dwight  has  said 
in  his  History,  it  was  to  the  bounty  of  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut 
that  the  support  of  Yale  College  was  chiefly  due.  Again  and  again 
all  other  resources  failed.  It  was  the  legislature  that  erected  old 
Connecticut  Hall  aud  gave  to  it  the  name  of  its  benefactor. 

Then  look  at  the  history  of  Dartmouth.  The  college  began  as  a 
work  of  charity.  Gradually  it  grew  into  something  more  than  a 
secondary  school.  But  during  the  years  of  its  early  growth,  it  never 
hesitated  to  call  for  aid  upon  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire  ; 
and  its  call  was  seldom  heard  in  vain.  It  educated  many  of  the  sons 
of  Vermont,  and  in  due  time  it  called  upon  the  Green  Mountain 
State  for  its  share  of  assistance.  A  cheerful  recognition  of  the  ob- 
ligation was  the  result.  The  land  of  a  township  was  given  to  the 
college,  and  a  record  of  the  fact  was  stamped  into  the  history  and 
upon  the  map  of  the  state  by  giving  to  the  town  the  name  of  the 
college  president. 

What  was  true  of  the  method  that  prevailed  in  New  England  was 
also  true  of  the  South.  William  and  Mary,  the  second  college  estab- 
lished in  the  Colonies,  took  its  name  from  the. royal  benefactors  who 
made  the  first  large  contribution  for  its  support  out  of  the  public 
treasury.  The  Colony  was  also  taxed  in  behalf  of  the  institution. 
A  part  of  the  value  of  every  pound  of  tobacco  raised  in  Virginia  had 
to  go  into  the  treasury  for  the  benefit  of  the  college.  This  contin- 
ued throughout  colonial  days.  And  when  Jefferson  conceived  the 
plan  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  in  some  respects  the  grandest  ed- 


6 

ucational  project  ever  devised  in  America,  though  he  was  inclined  to 
intrust  less  authority  to  the  government  than  any  other  of  our  fore- 
fathers, he  endeavored  to  make  the  institution  as  much  a  part  of  the 
educational  system  of  the  state  as  were  the  common  schools  them- 
selves. 

This  method  of  supporting  the  colleges,  moreover,  was  not  only 
universal,  it  was  also  effectual  in  that  it  planted  and  nourished  into 
maturity  colleges  of  a  high  order  of  merit  even  in  the  infant  days  of 
our  national  life.  Not  only  were  admirable  scholars  made,  but  they 
were  made  in  large  numbers.  The  standards  of  those  days,  it  is 
true,  were  somewhat  different  from  the  standards  of  our  days  ;  but 
one  who  looks  at  what  was  done,  while  recognizing  great  differences, 
will  hesitate  long  before  he  pronounces  them  inferior.  A  recent  and 
eminent  superintendent  of  education  in  your  own  state  not  long 
since  pronounced  the  opinion  that  the  standards  of  higher  education 
in  colonial  days  were  not  simply  relatively,  but  actually  higher  than 
the  standards  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  I  am 
not  here  to  corroborate  this  statement  or  even  to  express  an  opinion 
on  that  point.  But  we  may  regard  it  as  certain  that  the  schools  that 
could  train  the  men  of  revolutionary  days  were  efficient  and  were 
among  the  most  valuable  institutions  of  colonial  time. 

And  when  we  pass  on  from  colonial  days  to  the  days  of  the  re- 
public, we  find  that  the  propriety  and  the  justice  of  these  methods 
were  universally  recognized.  That  first  great  ordinance  which  still 
sheds  its  benign  influence  over  the  Northwest,  provided  that 
"Schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged." 
And  from  the  day  of  that  benignant  provision  to  the  present  time, 
no  territory  has  been  organized  and  no  state  has  been  admitted  to  the 
Union  without  provision  that  a  part  of  its  domain  shall  be  set  apart 
for  higher  learning  as  well  as  a  part  for  the  common  schools. 

Thus  it  is  that  I  hold  the  Land  Grant  of  1862  to  have  been  in 
strict  accordance  with  the  best  traditions  of  our  educational  history. 

The  second  part  of  my  thesis  is  that  the  Morrill  Land  Grant  was 
in  strict  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  present  time. 

We,  doubtless,  sometimes  talk  flippantly  and  unwisely  of  what  we 
call  the  spirit  of  the  age.  And  yet  the  age  in  which  we  live  has  cer- 
tain peculiarities  which  we  can  hardly  go  astray  in  trying  to  char- 
acterize. They  are  so  distinctly  marked,  indeed  they  are  so  generally 
acknowledged  and  understood  that  even  to  speak  of  them,  subjects 
one  to  the  charge  of  dealing  with  the  common-place.    But  the  relation 


of  these  characteristics  to  matters  of  education  is  so  important  that 
I  shall  venture  briefly  to  speak  of  them. 

During  the  middle  ages  the  work  of  the  schools  was  limited  to 
the  education  of  those  who  were  to  go  into  the  learned  professions. 
It  is  even  a  matter  of  some  doubt  whether  the  great  Charles,  the 
organizer  of  schools  in  France  and  Germany  could  himself  write  or 
read.  It  is  certain  that  one  of  the  greatest  of  French  military  lead- 
ers, as  late  as  the  time  when  the  Renaissance  was  beginning  to  dawn, 
was  absolutely  illiterate. 

Nor  was  this  condition  of  affairs  a  singular  one,  or  one  that  should 
excite  our  surprise.  Before  the  introduction  of  the  Baconian  philos- 
ophy, the  methods  of  looking  at  the  problems  of  life  were  the  reverse 
of  the  methods  that  have  now  come  to  prevail.  Aristotle  said,  "  Look 
into  your  own  minds,  study  the  nature  of  thought,  look  into  the  nature 
of  things,  and  thus  you  will  be  able  to  reason  out  the  course  of  con- 
duct you  ought  to  pursue."  The  Aristotelian  philosophy  prevailed 
until  the  seventeenth  century.  At  length  came  Bacon  and  Descartes. 
Their  methods  were  the  opposite.  They  said,  study  things  not  so 
much  in  their  nature, — which  you  cannot  know  anything  about  by  a 
process  of  reasoning — as  in  their  characteristics  and  relations.  You 
are  to  reason  from  their  external  appearance  and  characteristics  which 
everybody  can  investigate  and  in  some  sense  at  least  understand  into 
their  internal  natures.  Thus  it  was  that  the  Baconian  or  inductive 
philosophy  had  for  its  aim  the  setting  of  all  thinking  beings  to  the 
examining  of  the  things  everywhere  about  them.  It  taught  not  only 
that  the  domain  of  thought,  but  also  that  the  domain  of  action,  was 
open  to  the  scrutiny  of  human  intelligence.  It  exhorted  everybody 
to  pry  into  whatever  there  was  within  the  range  of  observation. 
Examine  the  methods  of  nature,  in  order  to  discover  the  laws  of 
nature.  Examine  the  habits  of  animals  in  order  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  laws  of  their  development.  Study  the  rocks,  the  trees,  the 
plants,  the  flowers,  in  fact,  study  all  the  domain  of  nature,  in  order 
to  discover  the  secrets  of  nature.  The  exhortation  was  followed  in 
the  course  of  the  last  century  by  the  birth  of  what  are  called  the  Nat- 
ural Sciences. 

It  is  not  singular  that  this  method  immediately  began  to  insist  on 
the  examination  of  institutions  as  well  as  the  things  of  nature.  Here- 
tofore, the  rights  of  the  church,  the  rights  of  the  king,  the  rights  of 
all  governing  powers,  rested,  not  on  any  evidence  that  such  forms 
and  methods  by  actual  experience  had  been  shown  to  conduce  to  the 


8 

largest  happiness  of  man,  but  rather  on  some  preconceived  right  that 
was  founded  on  authority  either  human  or  divine.  But  now  came  a 
change.  The  Baconian  philosophy  taught  that  men  might  examine 
the  conduct  of  government ;  and  they  drew  the  logical  inference  that 
if  they  might  examine,  they  might  act  on  the  results  of  examination. 
This  they  did  not  hesitate  to  do.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the 
immortal  work  of  Bacon  which  embodied  and  put  into  permanent 
scientific  form  the  results  of  his  studies  and  the  substance  of  his  phi- 
losophy was  published  in  1620,  the  very  year  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Ply- 
mouth, just  twenty-two  years  before  the  vigorous  outbreak  of  the 
English  Revolution. 

Now  what  was  the  educational  significance  of  this  movement? 
Why,  simply  this.  It  opened  the  whole  realm  of  nature  as  the  legit- 
imate field  of  investigation  and  study.  Before  this  time  the  work  of 
the  schools  and  universities  had  been  confined  to  developing  the  minds 
of  the  pupil  and  the  teaching  of  the  four  learned  professioils — theol- 
ogy, medicine,  law,  and  pedagogy.  Universities  had  been  established 
in  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries  in  all 
parts  of  Europe,  but  in  no  one  of  them  were  studies  carried  on  in 
accordance  with  the  modern  investigating  spirit.  This  is  not  strange, 
for  the  sciences  had  not  yet  been  born.  They  could  not  come  into 
existence  till  the  investigating  or  inductive  methods  of  study  had 
come  to  prevail,  and  these  methods  it  was  that  the  Baconian  philoso- 
phy ushered  in. 

A  change  of  this  nature  was  necessarily  slow  in  making  itself 
observed.  But  there  was  here  and  there  a  man  who  caught  the  new 
spirit  and  preached  the  new  doctrine.  The  most  enlightened  man  of 
the  next  generation  was  Milton.  He  had  in  the  vast  stores  of  his 
mind  all  the  wealth  of  ancient  learning.  But  he  saw  the  full  signifi- 
cance of  the  new  philosophy  and  so  every  page  of  his  tractate  on 
Education  is  redolent  with  the  modern  spirit.  Here  are  some  of  his 
words,  "I  call  therefore  a  complete  and  generous  education,  that 
which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly,  skillfully,  and  magnanimously  all 
the  oflSces,  both  private  and  public  of  peace  and  war."  This  com- 
prehensive definition  might  not  inaptly  be  emblazoned  as  a  motto 
upon  the  walls  of  every  one  of  the  institutions  founded  by  the  Mor- 
rill Grant  of  1862. 

But  the  doctrine  of  Milton  was  slow  in  permeating  educated  soci- 
ety. Institutions  of  learning  are  proverbially  conservative.  The 
universities  resisted  all  change  until  the  necessity  of  change  made 


9 

itself  everywhere  apparent.  A  century  passed  on  during  which  the 
ideas  of  Bacon  and  Milton  were  gradually  infiltratrating  th"emselve8 
into  the  minds  of  the  people.  Then  came  the  great  book  of  Adam 
Smith  on  the  Wealth  of  Nations, — a  book  whicli  is  entitled  to  this 
distinction  that  by  combining  the  Aristotelian  with  the  Baconian 
methods  it  sought  to  establish  a  science  of  wealth  on  a  philosophical 
basis.  The  premises  and  the  reasoning  on  which  conclusions  were 
founded  were  not  in  my  judgment  without  great  errors  ;  but  the  book 
had  its  bearings  on  education  scarcely  less  important  than  its  bearings 
on  political  economy  and  finance.  Its  teachings  were  essentially  this  : 
the  best  thing  government;  can  do  with  men,  as  a  rule^  is  simply  to 
protect  them  against  abuses  from  their  fellows,  and  then  let  them 
alone.  This  doctrine,  however  faulty, — and  civilization  is  now  teach- 
ing that  it  is  full  of  faults, — carried  with  it  this  logical  conclusion. 
If  it  be  true,  that  men  will  most  successfully  work  out  their  own  for- 
tune and  destiny,  when  not  interfered  with  by  government,  it  follows 
that  they  must  acquire  the  general  intelligence  suitable  for  self  guid- 
ance, and,  consequently,  that  far  more  generous  provisions  for  edu- 
cation must  be  made  than  had  ever  before  been  provided  for. 

These  doctrines  of  Adam  Smith,  moreover,  were  in  complete  har- 
mony with  what  are  commonly  called  the  revolutionary  doctrines  of 
the  latter  part  of  the  last  century.  Jefferson,  as  well  as  Adam  Smith, 
preached  the  doctrine  of  letting  men  and  things  alone.  And  it  was 
precisely  because  kings  and  parliaments  and  nobles  and  hereditary 
lords  would  not  let  men  and  things  alone,  that  the  revolution  came 
on  in  America,  and,  a  little  later,  in  France. 

There  is  another  phase  of  the  course  of  events  that  is  worthy  of 
note.  While  the  revolutionary  ideas  in  regard  to  the  proper  attitude 
of  government  toward  the  people  were  taking  root  there  was  another 
revolution  going  on  which  had  even  greater  significance.  The  Bacon- 
ian doctrine  of  investigation  was  beginning  to  bear  fruit.  As  a  con- 
sequence the  modern  sciences  had  come  into  being.  In  all  parts  of 
the  world  every  bright  boy  was  looking  into  things.  Every  intelligent 
man  was  thinking  of  the  ways  by  which  his  means  of  subsistence 
could  be  improved.  You  know  the  result  was  the  most  remarkable 
succession  of  inventions  that  history  has  ever  known  anything  about. 
The  power  loom,  the  spinning  jenny,  the  application  of  steam  to  the 
driving  of  machinery,  the  cotton  gin,  the  invention  of  the  locomotive 
engine,  the  building  of  roads  and  canals,  not  only  changed  the  meth- 
ods of  existence  from  top  to  bottom,  but  also  made  everybody  the 
2 


10 

near  neighbor  of  everybody  else.  Contemplate  one  or  two  simple 
facts.  At  the  middle  of  the  last  century  it  was  still  the  regular 
method  of  conveying  freight  in  England  between  London  and  the 
interior  to  put  it  into  crooks  thrown  across  the  backs  of  mules,  and 
send  it  along  the  narrow  pathways  that  crossed  the  country.  But 
what  a  miracle  was  soon  wrought.  When  Emerson  visited  England 
about  the  middle  of  the  present  century  he  recorded  in  his  ''  Notes  " 
that  the  working  power  of  steam  in  Great  Britain  alone,  was  equal 
to  the  strength  of  six  hundred  millions  of  men  :  and  that  thirty-six 
thousand  ships  were  employed  in  carrying  British  products  to  distant 
parts  of  the  world.     What  a  mighty  revolution  was  that? 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  these  two  revolutions,  the  political 
and  philosophical  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  social  and  economic"  on 
the  other,  were  strictly  contemporaneous.  As  we  said  that  the  date 
of  the  Novum  Organum  was  the  date  of  the  Pilgrims ;  so  we  may 
note  that  the  date  of  the  "Wealth  of  Nations"  and  of  the  patents 
of  Watt  and  Bolton  were  all  within  the  years  of  our  revolutionary 
war. 

Now  it  is  a  curious  fact,  that  although  it  was  in  England  that 
these  two  revolutions  had  their  origin,  it  was  also  in  England  that 
the  educational  results  of  these  revolutions  were  slowest  and  latest 
in  making  themselves  felt.  The  reason,  however,  is  not  far  to  seek. 
England  was  the  first  to  take  advantage  of  the  new  inventions. 
Factories  had  sprung  into  existence  on  every  hill  side  and  on  every 
stream,  and  British  goods  had  taken  possession  of  every  market  in 
the  world.  The  statesmen  in  France  and  Germany  saw  that  nothing 
but  a  systematic  establishment  of  technical  schools  would  regain  for 
the  nations  of  the  continent  the  industrial  importance  which  they 
had  lost.  And  so  industrial  and  technical  schools  were  rapidly  es- 
tablished. The  Ecole  Poly  technique  came  into  existence  in  1795. 
A  school  of  similar  purpose  was  established  at  Chalons  in  1802  ;  an- 
other at  Angers  in  1811,  and  another  at  Aix  in  1843.  The  still  more 
famous  Ecole  Centrale  at  Paris  came  into  existence  in  1829  with  its 
array  of  schools  for  the  education  of  mechanical  engineers,  civil  en- 
gineers, chemists  and  architects.  Besides  these  there  were  estab- 
lished a  vast  number  of  trade  schools  of  every  kind,  with  shops  for 
the  teaching  of  methods  of  working  in  wood  and  iron  and  brass  and 
other  metals.  In  Paris  alone  there  are  more  than  a  hundred  such 
schools  open  alike  to  natives  and  to  foreigners. 

In  Germany  the  activity  in  this   direction    has   been    even   more 


11 

marked.  Austria  has  seven  great  technical  schools  and  Prussia  has 
nine.  The  new  home  of  the  Polytechnic  at  Berlin,  perhaps  the  fin- 
est educational  building  in  the  world,  has,  it  is  said,  accommodations 
for  no  less  than  four  thousand  students. 

Moreover,  besides  these  great  centres  of  the  higher  grades  of  tech- 
nical education,  there  is  a  vast  number  of  schools  of  a  more  elemen- 
tary grade.  These  are  grouped  about  every  industrial  nucleus  in  the 
country.  In  Hamburg  alone  nearly  a  hundred  teachers  are  employed 
to  give  instruction  in  technical  and  industrial  subjects  to  the  thou- 
sands of  pupils  that*  throng  the  rooms.  At  the  little  mountain  city 
of  Chemnitz  in  Saxony  there  are  five  higher  technical  and  trade 
schools,  and  so  successful  have  these  schools  been  within  the  past 
few  years  in  producing  skilled  labor,  that  from  the  single  county  of 
Nottingham,  in  England,  it  is  said  that  more  than  half  a  score  of 
great  manufacturing  firms  have  transferred  their  machinery  to  Sax- 
ony in  order  to  avail  themselves  of  the  superior  workmanship  that  is 
there  offered.  And  it  is  in  this  way  that  Germany,  by  means  of 
her  technical  schools,  is  taking  from  England  l>er  industrial  suprem- 
acy. 

At  last  England  has  come  to  see  her  danger.  At  Manchester,  at 
Sheffield,  at  Birmingham,  and  in  Loudon  technical  schools  of  some 
merit  have  recently  been  established.  At  last  the  scholastic  tran- 
quility of  Cambridge  even  has  been  disturbed  by  the  noise  of  the 
saws  and  the  lathes  and  tiie  planing  machines  of  a  technical  school ; 
and  even  old  Eton,  that  has  rested  for  centuries  in  its  quiet  beauty 
under  the  shadows  of  Windsor  Castle,  and  for  centuries  has  beeii 
the  favorite  school  of  the  scions  of  nobility,  has  been  obliged  to  yield 
to  the  universal  demand.  By  establishing  a  technical  annex  she,  how- 
ever unwillingly,  has  paid  tribute  to  the  inevitable. 

But  this  is  only  one  phase  of  the  general  .movement.  The  other, 
that  which  pertains  to  agriculture,  is  equally  striking  and  equally  im- 
portant. 

Agricultural  schools  were  established  in  Germany  early  in  the  pres- 
ent century.  But  it  was  not  till  after  Liebig  in  1844  published  his 
famous  work  on  "Chemistry  as  applied  to  Agriculture"  that  any  real 
impulse  was  given  to  agricultural  schools.  But  Liebig  proved  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  doubt  two  things.  The  one  was  that  however 
great  the  draft  upon  the  soil,  the  fertility  may  be  fully  maintained 
and  even  increased  by  restoring  to  the  soil  the  mineral  and  the  organ- 
ic matter  taken  from  it  at  the  harvest.     The  second  truth,  and. one 


12 

even  more  important  than  the  other,  was  that  the  proportions  and 
quantities  of  the  ingredients  taken  up  by  the  crop  are  so  variable  and 
so  different  under  differing  circumstances  that  nothing  less  than  a 
careful  and  scientific  study  of  soils 'will  enable  one  to  restore  those 
ingredients  in  the  most  efficient  and  economical  proportions.  Jt  was 
accordingly  held  that  for  the  encouragement  of  such  studies,  schools 
of  agriculture  must  be  multiplied. 

And  from  that  day  to  this  the  number  as  well  as  the  efficiency  of 
the  schools  has  steadily  increased.  Prussia  alone  has  four  higher 
agricultural  colleges  with  some  eighty  professorships ;  she  has  more 
than  forty  lesser  schools,  all  having  model  farms ;  she  has  five  spe- 
cia.l  schools  for  the  cultivation  of  meadows  and  the  scientific  study  of 
methods  of  irrigation  ;  she  has  one  special  school  for  the  teaching  of 
those  who  desire  to  reclaim  swamp  lands  ;  she  has  two  special  schools 
for  teaching  thegrowingof  fruit  trees  in  industrial  nurseries  ;  she  has 
a  school  for  teaching  horse-shoeing  ;  one  for  teaching  silk  raising  ;  one 
for  the  raising  of  bees  ;  and  one  for  teaching  the  cultivating  of  fish. 
Besides  all  these  she.  has  twenty  special  schools  for  the  education  of 
gardeners  ;  and  fifteen  schools  for  the  training  of  those  who  are  to 
cultivate  the  grape. 

The  example  of  Prussia  has  been  imitated  by  the  other  German 
states.  The  little  Kingdom  of  Bavaria,  scarcely  larger  than  Massa- 
chusetts, has  twenty-six  agricultural  colleges,  besides  more  than  two 
hundred  agricultural  associations.  Wiirtemberg,  still  smaller  in 
area,  has  sixteen  colleges,  and  seventy-six  associations.  Baden, 
with  a  population  of  only  a  million,  has  fourteen  agricultural  col- 
leges besides  four  schools  of  gardening  and  forestry.  Saxony,  with 
its  dense  population  of  two  millions  compacted  into  a  space  hardly 
larger  than  two  American  counties,  has  four  higher  colleges  and 
twenty  agricultural  schools  besides  a  veterinary  college,  and  a  de- 
partment of  agriculture  of  twenty  professors  at  the  University  of 
Leipsic.  Saxe  Weimar,  with  a  population  of  no  more  than  230,000 
souls  has  three  agricultural  colleges  besides  an  agricultural  depart- 
ment with  fifteen  professorships  at  the  University  of  Jena. 

And  what  has  been  the  result?  Simply  this,  that  while  in  every 
one  of  the  American  states,  as  is  shown  by  the  agricultural  reports, 
the  average  crop  per  acre  has  been  steadily  growing  less  and  less,* 

^Authority  for  this  statement  may  be  found  in  the  Report  of  the  Commission  of  Agri- 
culture for  the  year  1886,  p.  19.  It  is  thei-e  shown  that  the  average  yield  of  the  leading 
cereals,  between  1870  and  1879  was  considerably  greater  than  that  from  1879  to  1885.  The 
diminution  is  shown  by  the  following  ligures :  The  average  corn  crop  declined  from  26.8 
to  25.1  bushels  per  acre ;  Wheat,  from  12.5  to  12.1 ;  Oats,  from  27.5  to  27.2 ;  Rye,  from  14.2  to 
12.8;  Barley,  from  22.4  to  22.08;  and  Buckwheat,  from  17.5  to  13.6. 


13 

the  average  crop  in  Germany  has  been  as  steadily  growing  more  and 
more.  In  view  of  these  facts,  we  ought  to  bow  our  heads  in  humili- 
ty if  not  in  shame.  At  least  let  us  cease  our  unwarranted  boasting 
about  the  superiority  of  our  educational  facilities. 

Such  have  been  the  tendencies  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  1 
trust  that  you  will  now  agree  with  me  in  thinking  that  the  Morrill 
Grant  in  purpose  and  in  aim  was  in  harmony  with  the  general  spirit 
and  the  best  tendencies  of  the  times. 

The  third  part  of  nay  thesis  is  the  proposition  that  this  land  grant 
was  fraught  with  the   means  of  incalculable  advantage  to  the  nation. 

I  am  willing  to  concede  that  in  many  cases  the  avails  of  the  grant 
were  not  so  large  as  they  should  have  been.  If  it  were  necessary,  I 
would  admit  that  in  some  instances  there  was  a  conflict  between 
private  and  public  interests  and  that  in  consequence  there  was  a  cul- 
pable misuse  of  the  funds  ;  I  say  "if  it  were  necessary,"  for  I  am 
not  aware  that  any  such  instances  are  clearly  established. 

But  if  there  were  even  general  misuse  of  the  funds,  would  the  fact 
prove  that  the  grant  was  unwise?  Because  there  is  misuse  and 
extravagance  in  the  building  of  Post  Offices  and  Custom  Houses,  do 
we  say  that  the  building  of  such  structures  should  cease  ?  Do  we 
argue  that  because  there  are  fraudulent  contracts  for  carrying  the 
mails,  therefore  contracts  for  the  further  carrying  of  the  mails  should 
cease  ?  Do  we  say  that  because  there  are  frauds  in  elections  there- 
fore no  elections  shall  be  held?  No!  a  thousand  times  no!  We 
contemplate  the  good  we  receive,  we  determine  to  prevent  the  recur- 
rence of  abuses  in  the  future,  and  then  we  demand  those  appropria- 
tions which  the  greatest  good  of  the  people  requires.  And  so  must 
it  be  in  judging  of  this  great  measure. 

And  now  having  said  so  much,  I  wish  to  allude  to  one  fact  that 
prevented  the  large  returns  from  the  grant  that  were  anticipated.  A 
majority  of  the  states  had  no  government  lands  within  their  borders 
subject  to  location  under  the  bill.  The  consequence  was  that  most 
of  the  states  were  obliged  to  sell  the  government  scrip  at  whatever 
price  it  would  bring.  The  market  was  flooded  with  scrip,  and  the 
states  found  themselves  confronted  with  this  dilemma.  Either  they 
must  sell  the  scrip  at  the  contemptible  price  of  thirty  or  fifty  cents 
per  acre,  or  they  must  postpone  the  establishment  and  development 
of  the  college.  It  is  not  easy  perhaps  to  decide  which  in  this  alter- 
native was  the  wiser  course  to  pursue  ;  certain  it  is  that  when  the 
states  sold  the  scrip  at  a  low  price  they  practically  gave  back  to  the 


14 

people  in  the  way  of  profit  on  the  lands  a  large  share  of  what  Con- 
gress had  in  the  first  instance  intended  for  the  colleges.  It  follows 
that  whatever  the  states  lost  in  selling  upon  a  low  market,  the  peo- 
ple gained  in  buying,  and  are  in  equity  through  Congress  under  obli- 
gations to  restore.  Fortunate  were  those  states  which,  although 
obliged  to  sell  the  scrip,  found  buyers  who  were  willing  to  locate  the 
lands  and  give  proper  guaranty  to  turn  over  the  profits  to  the  college 
established. 

But  notwithstanding  the  diflSculties  in  the  way  of  realizing  the  full 
value  of  the  Grant,  no  one,  I  imagine  will  have  the  hardihood  to  deny 
that  a  great,  an  immense  good  has  been  accomplished.  Look  at  a 
few  of  the  facts  and  figures.  The  Land  Grant  amounted  to  17,430,- 
000  acres.  The  sum  realized  from  the  sale  of  this  scrip  is  reported 
to  have  been  $7,545,405. .  This  sum  has  been  greatly  increased  by 
additions  of  grounds,  buildings,  apparatus,  and  money  given  by 
benevolent  individuals.  In  this  way  the  land  scrip  fund,  which  in 
New  York  amounted  to  scarcely  more  than  $600,000,  has  been  aug- 
mented to  not  less  than  about  $6,000,000.  Though  the  university  to 
which  I  refer  has,  perhaps,  been  the  most  fortunate  of  the  land  grant 
institutions,  gifts  with  a  similar  purpose  have  likewise  increased  the 
endowments  in  other  States.  The  result  is  that  the  latest  reports 
show  that  these  colleges  now  employ  nearly  five  hundred  professors 
and  teachers,  and  give  instruction  to  some  five  thousand  students. 
Many  of  these  students  have,  in  turn,  become  teachers  in  other  schools 
and  colleges.  From  the  institution  with  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
be  connected,  I  recall  the  names  of  at  least  twelve  of  the  graduates 
who  have  become  professors  of  some  branch  of  Agriculture  in  other 
schools  of  collegiate  grade.  In  a  similar  way,  the  other  land  grant 
colleges  are  disseminating  knowledge  on  those  great  subjects  which 
were  especially  named  in  the  bill. 

But  this,  of  course,  has  been  but  a  small  part  of  the  work.  Thous- 
ands of  young  men,  educated  in  the  various  branches  of  Agriculture 
and  Mechanical  Science,  have  gone  forth  to  /engage  in  the  practical 
duties  of  life,  and  thus  have  disseminated  and  multiplied  the  knowl- 
edge they  have  received.  The  work  is  to  go  on  with  ever  accelerat- 
ing vigor,  and  thus  there  will  be  sent  out  a  continued  succession  for 
all  future  time. 

There  is  another  feature  of  the  benefits  received  from  this  great 
measure  that  ought  not  to  be  overlooked.  I  refer  to  the  fact  that 
centres  of    agricultural  knowledge  have  been  established  in  all  the 


15 

States  of  the  Union.  The  science  of  agriculture,  before  almost  ab- 
solutely unknown  by  the  masses  of  the  people  has  come  to  be  in 
some  measure  at  last  respected  and  ^en  honored.  The  agricultural 
necessities  of  the  country  have  been  made  more  apparent.  To  some 
thousands  of  young  men  the  stupendous  fact  is  now  taught  that  na- 
ture will  not  be  cheated  of  her  rights,  and  that  for  everything  you 
take  out  of  the  soil,  you  must  put  something  back,  or  the  time  will 
come  when  nature's  cashier  will  cease  to  honor  your  drafts,  and  you 
will  end  in  bankruptcy. 

And  what  a  field  for  such  teaching  there  is  ;  look  at  the  statistics 
of  our  Agricultural  Department.  In  every  one  of  the  States,  in  the 
Nortli,  in  the  South,  in  the  East  and  even  in  the  West,  the  yield  per 
acre  of  all  the  great  cereal  crops  has  been  steadily  declining  since 
the  early  years  of  the  Century.  The  American  farmer  has  impover- 
ished the  soil, — and  then  gone  West.  It  is  not  certain  that  this  pro- 
cess has  even  yet  been  arrested.  The  last  statistics  available  for 
general  comparison  are  not  very  reassuring.  If  the  New  England 
States  have  held  their  own,  it  has  not  been  by  means  of  improved  ag- 
riculture, but  by  the  general  establishment  of  manufactories.  The 
same  process  has  been  going  on  that  converted  many  of  the  fertile 
lands  of  Virginia  into  pine  barrens.  As  we  all  know  too  well  thou- 
sands of  acres  in  the  Eastern  States  have  been  abandoned  as  practic- 
ally worthless.  Meanwhile  the  streams  of  immigration  and  emigra- 
tion have  been  going  on.  The  Irish  and  the  Germans  have  come  to 
Massachusetts  ;  but  the  farmers  of  Massachusetts  have  gone  to  New 
York  and  Ohio,  the  people  of  New  York  and  Ohio  have  gone  to  In- 
diana and  Illinois,  and  the  people  of  Indiana  and  Illinois  have  gone 
to  Kansas  and  the  farther  West.  Ever  westward  has  been  the  move- 
ment until  the  current  has  been  arrested  on  the  slopes  of  the  Pacific. 
At  length  there  is  no  West,  to  whose  virgin  soil  we  may  flee.  Our 
farmers  no  longer  have  the  choice  between  remaining  poor  or  moving 
toward  the  setting  sun  ;  they  have  the  other  alternative,  the  one 
which  has  long  confronted  the  farmers  of  4  the  old  world,  remaining 
poor  or  a  more  perfect, knowledge  of  the  conditions  under  which  na- 
ture will  yield  a  bounteous  and  profitable  return. 

Then  look  at  another  fact.  In  many  regions  of  our  country  the 
same  desolating  process  is  going  on  that  has  reduced  the  fertile  fields 
about  the  Mediterranean  to  sterile  deserts.  The  trees  are  being 
swept  away  and  thus  we  attempt  to  frustrate  the  methods  by  which 
an  all  wise  Providence  designed  that  the  moisture  in  the  deep  soil 


16 

should  be  taken  up  into  the  plant  and  cast  off  into  the  clouds  to  be 
returned  again  as  rain.  What  has  been  the  result?  The  rainfall  has 
been  diminished,  the  showers  which  heaven  still  does  not  refuse  to 
furnish,  instead  of  being  welcomed  by  the  soft  verdure  of  forests 
and  cultivated  fields  and  lovingly  kept  in  the  §oil  for  the  good  of  all 
animal  and  plant  life,  is  repelled  by  parched  hill  sides,  so  that  it 
shoots  off  in  angry  torrents  and  is  soon  once  more  in  the  lakes  and  the 
great  rivers  and  the  oceans  beyond.  Thus  by  a  perfectly  explicable 
method  our  climate  is  undergoing  a  change  and  it  is  the  change  which 
in  some  of  the  regions  of  the  old  world  has  caused  the  sands  to  drift 
over  regions  that  were  once  the  homes  of  a  prosperous  people. 

And  yet  however  great  the  difficulties  may  seem,  there  is  no  ten- 
dency of  nature  that  is  more  amenable  to  the  influence  of  man's  ap- 
preciative intelligence.  Everybody  remembers  Emerson's  allusion  to 
the  ability  of  the  English  by  the  planting  of  trees  on  the  borders  of 
Egypt  to  bring  rain  again  after  a  drought  of  three  thousand  years. 
We  have  been  doing  the  same  thing  in  the  West ;  for  the  planting  of 
trees  and  cornfields  in  Kansas  and  Nebraska  up  to  the  very  frontier 
has  already  pushed  the  rain-line  further  west  by  more  than  a  hundred 
miles.  The  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  are  teem- 
ing with  facts  of  similar  significance.  It  is  estimated,  for  example, 
that  the  loss  from  the  swine  plague  alone  reaches  annually  some  thir- 
ty millions  of  dollars,  and  that  the  value  of  corn  and  wheat  annually 
destroyed  by  fungi  is  not  less  than  the  enormous  sum  of  two  hundred 
millions.* 

These  are  some  of  the  lessons  and  some  of  the  necessities  that  are 
taught  by  experience  ;  and  yet  they  are  only  hints,  as  it  were,  de- 
signed to  show  how  vast  is  the  domain  that  invites  the  careful  study 
of  our  schools  and  colleges.  It  is  into  this  domain  that  the  people 
were  invited  by  the  wise  Land  Grant  of  1862.  It  is  in  this  domain 
that  the  colleges  and  universities  founded  on  that  grant,  if  they  live 
up  to  their  high  behest,  will  accomplish  results  that  shall  be  for  the 
helping,  if  not  for  the  healing  of  the  nation. 


*  Report  of  Commissiouer  of  Agriculture  for  1886,  pp.  11,  24. 


ADDRESS. 


Hon.  Justin  S.  Mokkill, 

United  States  Senator  for   Vermont. 


/ 

While  having  some  words  to  which  I  may  not  unwillingly  give  ut- 
terance, yet,  not  until  within  the  past  two  weeks  have  I  had  any  ex- 
pectation of  being  able,  in  response  to  the  invitation  of  January 
last,  to  be  present  on  this  25th  Anniversary  of  the  passage  of  the 
act  by  which  this  and  other  similar  colleges  have  been  established  in 
the  several  states.  I  am  glad  to  recognize  your  observance  of  the 
day  as  evidence  that  these  institutions  have  won  some  consideration 
and  hold  here  your  cordial  respect.  I  do  not  feel  that  the  Land- 
Grant  Colleges  derive  any  dignity  from  the  author  of  the  act  of  Con- 
gress to  which  they  owe  their  birth,  however  dear  to  me  his  reputa- 
tion may  very  naturally  be  supposed  to  be.  The  existence  of  the 
Colleges  can  alone  be  vindicated  by  the  reason  that  they  are  not  su- 
perfluous but  indisputably  wanted  ;  and  that  their  work  is  not  Utopi- 
an but  practically  of  real  service  to  our  country.  They  must  derive 
all  of  their  dignity,  not  from  any  real  or  supposed  obstacles  encount- 
ered in  their  origin,  but  from  the  substantial  equivalent  they  give  for 
the  four  years  of  vigorous  life  surrendered  by  students  to  their  guid- 
ance, and  from  the  lustre  reflected  upon  them  by  their  alumni. 

The  importance  of  the  early  training  of  the  horse  and  the  ox  has 
never  been  lost  sight  of  by  mankind  ;  a  seven-years'  apprenticeship 
has  been  thought  not  too  much  to  acquire  the  skill  of  a  master  me- 
chanic ;  and  the  importance  of  long  terms  of  human  training,  for  the 
professions  of  theology,  law,  medicine,  and  pedagogy,  has  for  years 
been  held  to  be  indispensable.  But  these  learned  professions,  impor- 
tant as  they  are,  numerically  include  only  a  small  fraction,  compara- 

3 


18 

tively,  of  the  human  race  ;  and,  yet,  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say, 
that  our  ancient  colleges  and  universities  mainly  provided  instruction 
originally  intended  exclusively  for  those  who  sought  to  be  equipped 
for  these  special  classes.  The  great  majority  of  mankind,  therefore, 
lacking  perhaps  neither  ambition  nor  native  ability,  were  dependent 
upon  the  hap-hazard  of  self -culture,  or  upon  being  taught  in  some 
brief  way  in  the  district-school  how  to  read,  write,  and  cipher.  If 
this  uncounted  and  unrepresented  multitude  sought  to  acquire  knowl- 
edge of  more  practical  value  in  the  voyage  of  life,  they  soon  found 
that  useful  knowledge  was  often  estimated  in  ancient  and  richly  en- 
dowed institutions  to  mark  the  humble  station  of  steerage  passen- 
gers, while  the  august  institutions  assumed  to  provide  alone  for  pas- 
sengers in  the  cabin,  and,  for  them — having  reluctantly  abandoned 
the  discipline  of  the  "birch" — only  intellectual  discipline,  the  effica- 
cy of  which  no  one  disputes,  though  no  less  efficacy  may  be  claimed 
in  behalf  of  studies  for  scientific  use  than  for  classic  ostentation. 

An  eminent  orator  Of  Harvard  College,  it  is  reported,  once  asked, 
"  What  is  a  University  ?"  and  answered  it  by  quoting  himself  as  hav- 
ing said  thirty  years  before  that,  "A  University  is  a  place  where 
nothing  useful  is  taught,  and  a  University  is  possible  only  where  a 
man  may  get  his  livelihood  by  digging  Sanscrit  roots." 

This  may  have  been  sanctioned  by  the  authority  of  longevity,  and 
certainly  appeared  thirty  years  ago  as  too  antiquated  and  limited  for 
the  general  wants  of  American  citizens,  who  claim  that  in  any  sphere 
of  life  education  pays,  that  all  persons,  however  humble  their  pur- 
suits, become  more  valuable  by  education,  more  useful  to  themselves 
and  to  the  community,  and  especially  so  where  each  one  has  a  visible 
and  responsible  share  in  the  government  under  which  he  lives. 

Something  more  than  a  system  of  liberal  education  for  the  class  of 
the  so-called  "liberal  professions"  was  demanded,  and  this  class, 
where  the  greatest  number  of  representatives  of  the  highest  culture 
now  exists,  should  all  gladly  welcome  additions  to  their  own  numbers 
of  other  learned  men.  The  great  army  of  industrious  laborers  in  the 
field  and  workshop,  in  mines  and  factories,  or  on  railroads  and  other 
business  enterprises — ready  at  any  time  to  give  their  lives  in  support 
of  the  liberties  and  union  of  the  nation — had  some  right  to  more  of 
sound  and  appropriate  learning  that  would  elevate  and  especially 
profit  them  in  their  respective  future  careers. 

The  school-age  of  man  is  far  too  brief  for  the  acquirement  of  all 
knowledge  of   philosophy,  letters  and  science,  and  where  the  dead 


19 

languages  have  the  primacy,  there  is  little  chance  for  the  sciences, 
for  modern  languages,  or  even  for  our  native  tongue,  or,  indeed,  for 
much,  with  scholarly  thoroughness,  in  anything  else.  A  mere  smat- 
tering of  the  sciences,  or  of  theancientlanguages,  is  no  more  to  be  cov- 
eted than  even  the  old  absolute  unity  of  all  college  education.  The 
organic  law  of  the  Land-Grant  Colleges,  therefore,  made  it  a  leading 
feature  that  instruction  should  be  provided,  without  ostracising  any- 
thing, in  branches  related  to  Agriculture  and  the  Mechanic  Arts,  up- 
on which,  as  we  all  know,  the  greater  number  of  mankind  must  rely 
for  their  subsistence  and  happiness,  as  well  as  for  their  growth  and 
reputation  among  men. 

The  sciences  related  to  agriculture^  tending,  among  other  things, 
to  increase  the  food  products  of  the  world,  and  the  mechanic  arts, 
upon  which  nations  must  lean  for  their  independence  and  defence, 
should  neither  be  ignored  nor  assigned  to  an  inferior  position.  The 
mastery  in  these  robust  branches  of  learning  requires  training  and 
brain-power,  and  does  not  exclude,  though  it  may  diminish  attention 
to  those  branches  of  study  too  often  regarded  as  the  only  branches 
where  honors  can  be  won,  or  as  the  only  luxuries  of  a  liberal  educa- 
tion. Our  late  Mr.  Motley  once  said,  "Give  me  the  luxuries  of  life 
and  I  will  do  without  the  necessaries  ; "  but  the  wit  of  the  epigram 
does  not  conceal  its  mischievous  philosophy,  nor  excuse  its  accept- 
ance by  educational  institutions.  The  world  cannot  do  without  the 
necessaries  of  education  any  more  than  without  the  necessaries  of 
life.  We  can  do  without  champagne  and  Limburger  cheese  and  we 
might  have  done  without  Dr.  Parr  and  Matthew  Arnold,  but  Ameri- 
cans would  have  been  very  unhappy  without  Dr.  Franklin,  although, 
like  Shakespeare,  he  only  "knew  a  little  Latin  and  less  Greek."  Dr. 
Parr  was  a  prolific  writer,  distinguished  for  the  Ciceronian  purity  of 
his  Latin,  and  thought  his  knowledge  of  Greek  second  only  to  that 
of  Porson,  but  a  later  generation  has  denounced  "The  thread  of 
Parr's  verbosity  as  finer  than  the  staple  of  his  argument,"  while  the 
same  generation  promises  immortality  to  the  fame  of  Dr.  Franklin. 
Surely  the  researches  by  which  scientific  knowledge  has  made  its  tri- 
umphant advances  during  the  present  age,  or  by  which  many  con- 
spicuous inventions  have  been  brought  forever  into  the  fruitful  and 
beneficent  service  of  mankind,  entitle  their  authors  to  as  high  a 
measure  of  respect  as  has  been  or  can  be  awarded  to  any  of  their 
contemporaries  in  other  spheres  of  life,  and  seems  to  bring  them 
more  nearlv  related  to  the  Divine  Creator  of  the  Universe. 


20 

The  Laud-Grant  Colleges  were  founded  on  the  idea  that  a  higher 
and  broader  education  should  be  placed  in  every  state  within  the 
reach  of  those  whose  destiny  assigns  them  to,  or  who  may  have  the 
courage  to  choose  industrial  vocations  where  the  wealth  of  nations  is 
produced ;  where  advanced  civilization  unfolds  its  comforts,  and 
where  a  much  larger  number  of  the  people  need  wider  educational 
advantages,  and  impatiently  await  their  possession.  The  design  was 
to  open  the  door  to  a  liberal  education  for  this  large  class  at  a  cheaper 
cost  from  being  close  at  hand,  and  to  tempt  them  by  offering  not  only 
sound  literary  instruction,  but  something  morti  applicable  to  the  pro- 
ductive employments  of  life.  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  it 
was  intended  that  every  student  should  become  either  a  farmer  or 
mechanic  when  the  design  comprehended  not  only  instruction  for 
those  who  may  hold  the  plow  or  follow  a  trade,  but  such  instruction 
as  any  person  might  need — with  ''the  world  all  before  them  where 
to  choose  " — and  without  the  exclusion  of  those  who  might  prefer  to 
adhere  to  the  classics.  Milton  in  his  famous  discourse  on  education, 
gives  a  definition  of  what  an  education  ought  to  be,  which  would  seem 
to  very  completely  cover  all  that  was  proposed  by  the  Land-Grant 
Colleges  ;  and  Milton  lacked  nothing  of  ancient  learning,  nor  did  he 
suffer  his  culture  to  hide  his  stalwart  republicanism.  He  says:  "  I 
call,  therefore,  a  complete  and  generous  education,  that  which  fits  a 
man  to  perform  justly,  skilfully  and  magnanimously  all  the  offices, 
both  private  and  public,  of  peace  and  war." 

It  was  not  desired  that  literary  colleges  should  be  superseded,  or 
be  in  any  sense  dwarfed,  as  surely  none  of  these  elder  colleges  or 
universities  could  have  any  reason  to  complain  at  the  prospect  of 
an  augmentation  of  the  number  of  educated  young  men,  nor  could 
they  have  any  reason  to  complain  but  should  rejoice  when  reinforced 
by  an  additional  corps  of  teachers — though  differently  equipped — 
enlisted  in  the  earnest  labor  of  training  men  for  the  noblest  ranks  of 
usefulness.  There  is  room  for  all.  Thorough  culture  is  contagious. 
One  educated  young  man  creates  an  educational  epidemic  in  a  whole 
neighborhood.  The  only  contention  is  that,  in  educational  institu- 
tions of  the  highest  dignity,  scholarship  in  useful  learning  should 
stand  as  equal  to  scholarship  in  any  other  branch  of  education,  and 
I  hope  to  be  pardoned  for  believing  that  it  will  do  as  much  to  disci- 
pline and  to  fashion  as  large  a  proportion  in  the  hundred  of  men  for 
distinction  in  society,  and  to  make  them  valuable  citizens,  as  well  as 
authorities  and  ornaments  in  their  respective  vocations,  entitling  them 


21 

as  much  to  the  honors  of  a  college,  as  anything  to  be  found  in  the 
humanities  of  a  four  years'  university  curriculum. 

Within  the  memory  of  many  of  those  who  now  live,  the  advance- 
ment of  the  useful  arts  and  sciences  is  supposed  to  have  eclipsed  all 
previous  records.  Modern  text-books  of  chemistry,  botany,  entomol- 
ogy, forestry,  geology,  metallurgy,  electricity,  mechanics,  architecture 
and  zoology,  would  be  unknown,  if  not  '^  all  Greek,"  to  most  college 
graduates  of  fifty  years  ago  ;  but  since  the  date  of  the  Land-Grant 
Colleges,  other  colleges,  endowed  with  sufficient  means,  have  also 
responded  with  more  or  less  liberality  to  the  demand  for  instruction 
in  these  branches,  leaving  many  of  them  elective  or  optional.  The 
Land-Grant  Colleges  have,  therefore,  not  only  done  good  work  of 
their  own,  but  have  prompted,  perhaps,  some  good  work  upon  the 
part  of  others. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  living  languages  of  commercial 
nations  are  beginning  to  be  held  by  a  vast  majority  of  our  busy  world 
at  least  of  equal  value  to  those  which,  if  the  slang  may  be  pardoned, 
are  "  as  dead  ^s  Julius  Caesar."  The  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
immigrants  who  come  to  us  annually  often  learn  how  to  vote  before 
they  have  learned  the  American  language,  and  they  must  be  addressed, 
if  addressed  at  all,  in  their  mother  tongue.  It  would  not  become  me 
to  depreciate  the  value  of  the  language  of  Plato,  nov  that  of  Cicero ; 
let  us  bid  those  in  their  pursuit  God-speed  ;  to  what  has  hitherto  been 
called  "  the  learned  professions,"  wherein  the  Press  should  be  includ- 
ed, they  are  undeniably  useful,  and  even  the  exaggeration  of  this 
usefulness  may  well  be  excused ;  but  the  increased  value  of  time,  in 
the  present  age  of  the  locomotive,  telegraph  and  telephone,  makes 
them  to  much  more  than  half  of  the  world  a  costly  acquisition,  espec- 
ially so  if  we  consider  how  quickly  the  acquisition  often  vanishes 
unless  permanently  held  fast  through  daily  reading  by  such  tireless 
students  as  Choate  or  Gladstone. 

Eloquence  and  scholarship  are  nowhere  more  highly  appreciated 
than  in  America,  and  nowhere  are  creditable  achievements  in  arts 
and  sciences  more  swiftly  rewarded.  Our  country  will  welcome 
'*  bright,  particular  "  stars  in  whatever  constellation  they  may  appear, 
and  give  a  home  to  them  all. 

The  establishment  in  many  of  our  cities  of  what  are  known  as 
"  Business  Colleges  "  discloses  how  inadequate  have  been  the  means 
of  instruction  for  those  engaged  in  trade  and  commerce  ;  and  business 
men  everywhere  have  seemed  ready  to  accept  of  any  remedy  offered. 


22 

Ruskin  says  that,  in  England  and  Europe,  ''  a  man  is  called  edu- 
cated if  he  can  write  Latin  verses  and  constiHe  a  Greek  chorus." 
We  may  here  be  permitted  to  ask  for  something  which  to  many  may 
appear  of  more  practical  application  and  utility,  and  those  who  do 
not  agree  with  us  should  remember  that  liberal  education  is  ever 
tolerant  of  opposing  views,  and  that  there  is  no  power  in  education 
of  any  kind  to  make  an  imbecile  clever,  to  give  wit  to  the  dull,  or 
genius  to  the  brainless  ;  and  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  any  kind 
will  make  a  lazy  fellow  work  ;  but,  a  sound  education  ought  to  give 
its  recipients  the  control  of  all  the  forces  with  which  they  have  been 
blessed  by  their  Creator,  and  even  then  eminence  is  not  often  won 
without  lifelong  earnest  work. 

Lovingly  and  religiously  devoted  to  the  highest  ideals  of  beauty, 
the  Greeks  selected  the  most  perfect  of  human  forms  as  models  upon 
which  to  base  the  creation  of  their  divinities  in  marble  representing 
Zeus  and  Minerva,  Apollo  and  Athena  ;  and,  through  all  the  rivalry 
of  succeeding  ages,  no  prodigy  of  genius,  no  power  of  art  anywhere 
arises  to  challenge  their  royal  supremacy.  In  the  construction  of 
temples,  theatres  and  monuments,  the  Greeks  by  their  consummate 
devotion  to  grand  public  structures  appear  to  have  established  classic 
standards  of  architecture,  recognized  and  revered  throughout  the  civ- 
ilized world — excepting  only  those  recently  infected  places  where  the 
Queen  Anne  craze  prevails. 

But  in  comparison  with  the  present  state  of  the  useful  arts  and  sci- 
ences, the  great  sources  of  human  power,  progress,  and  happiness, 
it  would  seem  that  the  ancient  Greeks  profited  little  by  the  early  gift 
of  fire  from  Prometheus. 

Certainly  it  would  be  too  much  to  look  for  an  advanced  state  of  the 
sciences  among  those  who  devoted  science  chiefly  to  the  study  of  pol- 
itics, or  to  look  for  much  superiority  in  the  mechanic  arts  among  those 
apparently  destitute  of  machinery.  The  treatment  of  such .  subjects 
as  mechanics,  physics  and  astronomy,  even  by  Aristotle,  was  nothing 
less  than  a  complete  failure.  They  had  no  idea  of  the  kinship  of 
the  Earth  to  the  planetary  system  ;  and  the  Homeric  scientific  knowl- 
edge of  astronomy  was  as  scanty  as  that  of  the  wildest  American 
Indians.  The  hatred  of  the  Athenian  democracy  by  Plato  much  dis- 
turbed his  philosophy,  and  made  him  the  enemy  of  the  great  princi- 
ples of  human  freedom  which  now  we  regard  as  essential  to  the  health 
of  all  modern  political  development.  When  the  Apostle  Paul  encoun- 
tered "certain  philosophers  of  the  Epicureans  and  of  the  Stoics"  at 


23 

Athens,  the}'  did  not  then  win  more  of  his  respect  than  they  do  now 
that  of  the  President  of  Princeton  College  ;  and  the  New  Testament 
record  appears  to  have  left  them  in  the  following  curt  parenthesis  : 
"(For  all  the  Athenians  and  strangers  sojourning  there  spent  their 
time  in  nothing  but  either  to  tell  or  to  hear  some  new  thing.)"  But 
literary  students  are  expected  to  find,  and  no  doubt  do  find,  much 
compensation  for  any  deficiencies  in  the  "  sweetness  and  light"  af- 
forded by  the  study  of  the  logic  and  rhetoric  of  their  greatest  authors. 

If  I  am  saying  something  too  much  about  the  Greeks,  it  is  only  to 
help  the  sons  of  farmers  and  of  mechanics  to  dismiss  from  their 
minds  a  prevailing  error  that  an  education  in  institutions  where  Greek 
is  a  non-essential  will  to  them  prove  of  unequal  rank  and  value  to 
that  of  institutions  where  it  is  kept  constantly  at  the  front,  and  who, 
lacking  the  required  preparation  for  it,  or  the  time  required  to  pre- 
pare for  it,  may  be  deterred  from  entrance  to  any  college.  Notwith- 
standing the  universal  prevalence  of  our  common  schools,  it  is 
doubtful,  with  all  of  our  colleges,  whether  the  number  of  college 
graduates,  in  proportion  to  population,  is  much  greater  than  it  was 
one  hundred  years  ago.  I  would  have  higher  learning  more  widely 
disseminated. 

The  great  distinction  of  the  ancient  Greeks  in  the  force  and  beau- 
ty of  their  language,  in  oratory,  history,  poetry,  sculpture,  and  ar- 
chitecture must  be  conceded,  as  it  has  for  ages  been  a  perpetual  mar- 
vel ;  but  this  apparently  foremost  race  of  men,  within  certain  limita- 
tions, and,  in  a  dark  age,  unsurpassed  in  their  special  intellectual  and 
Olympian  development,  has  been  doomed  to  such  an  extreme  deca- 
dence that  the  world  now  attaches  much  less  importance  to  the  de- 
scendants of  Homer,  Pericles  and  Demosthenes  than  to  the  descend- 
ants of  the  ancient  Germans  whom  Thucydides  described  as  among 
the  lowest  types  of  barbarians.  Doubtless  some  reason  for  this  de- 
cadence may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  ancient  Greeks,  like  our 
American  savages,  held  industrial  employments  as  entitled  to  no  hon- 
or, and  unworthy  of  the  worshippers  of  the  Grecian  gods  and  god- 
desses. Nowhere  rejecting  their  good  examples,  let  us  beware  of 
following  their  "example  of  unbelief"  in  labor,  or  of  unbelief  in  the 
value  of  educated  labor  in  promoting  general  morality  and  obedience 
to  law  as  well  as  in  promoting  the  intelligence,  power  and  beauty  of  the 
national  character. 

We  live  in  a  Christian  age,  and  do  not  ignorantly  worship  an  un- 
known God.     We  accept  it  as  a  blessing  that  to  Adam  it  was  or- 


24 

dained,  "In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread."  We  re- 
joice in  the  fact  that  we  live  under  a  republican  form  of  government, 
where  all  men  are  equal  before  the  law,  vy^here  the  income  of  capital 
is  not  wholly  dominant,  where  social  conditions  are  not  fixed  by  he- 
redity, and  where  the  rank  of  men  depends  upon  their  own  personal- 
ly earned  and  individual  merits. 

I  should  be  unwilling  to  accept  the  language  of  Alfieri  in  regard  to 
the  "man-plant  born  in  Italy,"  as  to  me  it  appears  that,  "in  no  other 
land  is  the  man-plant  born  with  more  inherent  vigor  than  in"  America. 

I  have  been,  therefore,  most  earnestly  in  favor  of  giving  to  this 
"inherent  vigor,"  so  largely  found  in  the  active  pursuits  of  our  coun- 
try, all  the  sound  learning  practically  required  to  develop  the  intel- 
lect and  the  general  character  of  a  great  people.  Science  is  always 
progressive,  and  never  tolerates  a  sham.  The  world-wide  depression 
in  farming  everywhere  brino's  disaster  upon  the  unskilful  farmer ; 
and  in  New  England  the  utmost  skill,  as  well  as  knowledge  of  the 
principles  and  facts  of  agriculture,  are  absolutely  necessary  to  suc- 
cess. I  am  glad  to  believe,  with  Carroll  D.  Wright,  one  of  Massa- 
chusetts' distinguished  citizens,  "that  laborers  who  are  able  to 
employ  nothing  but  muscle  are  decreasing,  and  the  status  of  un- 
skilled labor  is  likely  to  be  much  improved  during  the  next  genera- 
tion." 

The  Land-Grant  Colleges  are  now  more  than  equal  in  number  to 
the  states  of  the  Union,  and  light  up  some  of  the  formerly  destitute 
portions  of  our  country.  In  eight  states  where  the  land  fund  ap- 
peared too  limited  for  an  independent  institution,  colleges  have  been 
successfully  grafted  upon  the  healthy  stock  of  some  existing  literary 
institution,  and  in  no  instance  has  such  a  junction  bred  intestine  and 
internecine  war.  Most  of  the  states  have  spontaneously  aided  the 
colleges  by  furnishing  necessary  buildings,  and  also  by  very  liberal 
annual  appropriations.  Generous  local  bounties  from  towns  and 
from  private  individuals  also,  have  often  been  received.  With  hard- 
ly an*  exception  these  colleges  are  doing  excellent  educational  work. 
It  is  a  gratification  to  find  that  the  largest  endowment  in  any  state 
has  been  husbanded  most  successfully,  having  fallen  into  very  astute 
and  worthy  hands,  and  has  served,  with  other  large  bounties,  to  build 
up  the  most  complete  and  prosperous  of  all  these  institutions.  I 
must  also  add  that  Cornell  University,  to  which  of  course  I  refer, 
has  been  fortunate  in  her  teachers  as  well  as  in  her  large-handed  ben- 
efactors, and,  whenever  any  special  want  has  been  developed,  some 


25 

generous  friend  has  been  ready  to  pour  thousands  after  thousands  in 
to  her  lap. 

The  prescribed  military  instruction  of  these  colleges,  for  each  of 
which  a  professor  is  now  detailed  from  the  United  States  army,  fur- 
nishes that  measure  of  theoretical  and  practical  knowledge  necessary 
for  organizing  and  drilling  companies  in  any  future  emergency  of 
our  country,  and  its  essential  importance  in  a  land  where  a  merely 
nominal  standing  army  is  maintained,  can  hardly  be  over-estimated, 
especially  if  the  officer  detailed  highly  values  his  profession  and  has 
executive  ability.  As  an  incident,  the  drill  offers  a  healthful  and 
permanent!}^  beneficial  discipline  to  students  in  promoting  physical 
development  and  a  manly  bearing,  incomparably  superior  to  that  of 
the  gymnasium,  or  to  that  of  any  other  athletic  exercise  or  recrea- 
tion . 

In  the  first  argument  made  by  me  in  1858  in  behalf  of  the  Land- 
Grant  Colleges,  I  pointed  out  the  fact  that  there  was  going  on  an  an- 
nual deterioration  of  the  soil,  as  it  appeared  by  the  decennial  census 
reports,  showing  a  less  and  less  number  of  bushels  of  cereals  pro- 
duced per  acre  throughout  nearly  all  of  the  states.  This  deteriora- 
tion has  not  been  arrested,  though  more  vigilant  attention  is  now  giv- 
en.to  the  subject,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  will  not  be  wholly  arrested 
until  the  scalping  system  of  farming,  or  of  cropping  and  returning 
nothing,  shall  no  longer  be  profitable  upon  old  homesteads  that  are 
to  be  abandoned  with  the  hope  of  a  future  continuance  of  the  sys- 
tem upon  the  present  limited  prairies  of  the  West.  In  various  por- 
tions of  Europe  they  are  giving  far  more  liberal  aid  to  similar  insti- 
tutions than  that  which  has  been  accorded  in  the  United  States  ;  and 
they  are  there  retaining  the  maximum  fertility  of  their  soil.  There 
is  no  subject  to  our  people  of  pro  founder  concern,  or  of  more  far- 
reaching  importance. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  great  profession  of  the  law  is  most  apt  to 
qualify  men  for  prominent  public  positions,  it  is  also  true  that  the  an- 
nual supply  in  the  legal  profession  is  supposed  to  exceed  the  de- 
mand, and  that  professional  advancement  is  often  provokingly  slow ; 
but  we  have  it  from  the  best  authority  that  there  is  no  overproduction 
in  the  Land-Grant  Colleges,  that  few  of  their  graduates  remain  long 
unemployed  after  leaving  college.  They  are  found  in  shops  and  on 
farms,  and  their  services  are  sought  after  as  teachers,  as  engineers, 
surveyors,  foremen  of  shops  and  farms,  superintendents  of  mines 
and  manufactories,  and  frequently  they  are  called  to  lucrative  posi- 
4 


26 

tions  even  before  they  have  finished  their  studies.  This  enables 
them  to  enter  more  promptly  into  prosperous  life  ;  and  many  young 
ladies  may  be  glad  to  know  that  it  all  tends  to  encourage  early  mar- 
riages. 

These  colleges  are  thoroughly  American,  and  for  all  time  will  be 
entrusted  with  work  annually  increasing  in  its  importance.  Our  arti- 
sans are  to  contest  with  the  skill  and  wealth  of  many  nations,  and 
our  farmers  are  sorely  pressed  by  the  competition  of  agricultural 
products  which  cheap  and  rapid  communication  pushes  to  the  front  in 
all  markets  both  at  home  and  abroad.  To  successfully  withstand 
this  formidable  rivalry,  our  countrymen  need,  and  it  is  hoped  will 
here  find,  that  fundamental  instruction  which  is  founded  on  the  wid- 
est and  best  experience  of  mankind.  • 

Descendants  as  we  are  of  the  heroes  who  struck  the  blow  for  the 
National  Independence  of  '76,  proud  of  the  production  of  a  written 
Constitution  which  is  esteemed  by  the  enlightened  statesmen  of  the 
world  as  the  foremost  form  of  free  government  hitherto  devised  by 
man,  cheered  by  the  mile-stones  which  mark  the  progress  of  our  first 
century,  we  may  well  feel,  as  Webster  felt,  that  "the  past  is  se- 
cure" ;  but  Americans,  however,  cannot  afford  forever  to  have  no 
other  ambition  than  to  reach  the  goal  once  occupied  by  a  people, 
however  distinguished,  of  past  ages.  For  "to  whomsoever  much  is 
given,  of  him  shall  much  be  required,"  and  the  New  World  has  been 
given  to  us  forever  as  an  inalienable  possession,  where  we  are  not 
only  to  bridge  great  rivers  and  tunnel  mountains,  but  to  "make  the 
wilderness  and  solitary  places  glad."  All  the  centuries  of  the  future 
are  in  reserve,  under  Providence,  for  the  men  of  this  great  continent 
to  make  their  own  history,  and,  it  is  to  be  devoutly  hoped,  in  some 
measure,  to  eclipse  and  take  the  lead  of  other  nations,  old  or  young, 
in  worthy  achievements  in  all  the  arts  of  peace,  and  in  all  the  glories 
of  manhood's  ripest  culture. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS, 


Hon.  Charles  G.  Davis. 


Our  learned  friend  who  has  just  addressed  you,  has  discoursed  up- 
on the  philosophy  of  agricultural  education,  and  its  progress  in  the 
old  world.  It  is  my  humbler  province  to  present  facts  concerning  its 
advancement  in  our  own  country. 

That  history  and  human  life  present  wonderful  contrasts,  great 
changes,  and  striking  parallels  are  trite  remarks  ;  trite  because  so 
true,  and  so  instructive,  and  because  they  present  themselves  to  the 
observing  mind,  in  tracing  every  subject  of  human  interest. 

In  1624  Grov.  Edward  Winslow  brought  to  Plymouth  in  the  Charity 
three  heifers  and  a  bull,  "which,"  says  the  historian,  "were  the  first 
neat  cattle  that  came  into  New  England."  Soon  after  in  1624  James 
Shirley,  one  of  the  London  merchants  who  aided  the  Pilgrims,  sent 
over  a  cow  for  the  poor  of  the  Colony  ;  and  other  cattle  came  in  the 
Anne,  and  in  the  James,  often  called  in  the  records,  the  "Jacob." 
In  1627  a  number  of  goats  were  purchased  which  were  part  of  a  car- 
go of  a  ship  cast  away  at  Sagadehock ;  and  in  the  same  year,  May 
22nd,  cattle  and  goats  of  the  common  stock  were  equally  divided  by 
lots,  each  lot  being  apportioned  to  thirteen  persons.* 


*The  first  lot  consisted  of  "  4  black  heifers  and  2  she  goats  " ;  the  second  of  "  the  great 
black  cow  which  came  in  tlie  Ann,  the  lesser  of  the  2  steers,  and  2  she  goats  " ;  third,  "  the 
red  cow,  to  which  they  must  keep  her  calf  this  year,  being  a  bull,  and  two  she  goats"; 
fourth,  "  one  of  the  4  heifers  which  came  in  the  Jacob  " ;  fifth,  „one  of  the  4  heifers  which 
came  in  the  Jacob,  called  the  blind  heifer,  and  2  she  goats";  sixth,  "the  lesser  of  the 
black  cows  which  came  in  the' Ann,  and  the  biggest  of  the  2  steers,  with  2  she  goats"; 
seventh,  "a  black  weaning  calf,  to  which  is  added  the  calf  of  this  year  to  come  of  the 
black  cow,  and  2  she  goats  ";  eighth,  "  a  red  heifer  which  came  of  the  cow  which  belong- 
eth  to  the  poor  of  the  Colony,  the  persons  nominated  to  have  half  the  increase,  the  other 
half  with  the  old  stock  to  remain  for  the  use  of  the  poor;  also  2  she  goats";  ninth,  "one 
of  the  four  black  heifers  that  came  in  the  Jacob,  called  the  Smooth  Horned  Heifer,  and  2 
she  goats";  tenth,  "an  heifer  of  last  year  and  2  she  goats";  eleventh,  "an  heifer  of  last 
year  which  was  of  tlie  great  black  cow  brought  in  the  Ann  and  2  she  goats  " ;  twelfth,  "  the 
gi'eat  white  back  cow  brought  over  with  the  first  in  the  Ann  and  2  she  goats."  New  Eng- 
land Memorial,  Appendix,  note  L. 


28 

The  last  assignmeut  raises  a  doubt  whether  the  first  cattle  did  not 
come  over  in  the  Aniie,  upon  which  question  antiquarians  differ.  But 
they  agree  that  Gov.  Winslow  brought  the  first  cattle. 

The  poet,  Longfellow  whose  fancy  never  recognized  a  close  rela- 
tionship to  fact,  in  his  "Courtship  of  Miles  Standish"  pictures  Pris- 
cilla  Mullens,  the  bride,  as  performing  her  wedding  journey  to  the 
home  of  John  Alden  on  a  white  bull.  Longfellow  here  made  a  bull 
in  every  sense  of  the  word.  In  the  first  place,  at  the  time  of  John 
Alden's  marriage  there  were  no  cattle  in  New  England,  and  secondly, 
the  first  cattle  imported  were  of  a  dark  or  red  variety.  The 
poet's  poetic  license  was  a  "white  lie"  indeed.  This  bull  of  Long- 
fellow's must  be  the  same  which  crossed  the  sea  with  P^uropa  on  his 
back  on  her  wedding  journey  with  Jupiter.  It  is  probably  kept  by 
poets  for  wedding  journeys. 

In  1623  the  Colony  of  Plymouth  was  so  straitened  by  lack  of  pro- 
vision that  it  was  reduced  to  a  pint  of  corn,  and  lived  for  months 
without  bread.  Game  and  fish  furnished  their  principal  sustenance  ; 
and  they  gave  thanks  that  they  "could  suck  of  the  abundance  of  the 
sea,  and  of  the  treasures  hidden  in  the  sand."  The  first  comers  had 
no  plows.  Their  implements  were  scanty,  poor,  clumsy  and  heavy. 
They  at  first  used  a  shell  for  a  hoe  as  the  Indians  did.  Cast  steel 
had  not  then  been  invented.  Pumpkins,  squashes,  and  tobacco  were 
unknown  to  them,  and  potatoes  were  a  luxury  just  introduced  into 
England.  This  was  the  agriculture  of  New  England  two  hundred 
and  sixty  years  ago. 

What  need  of  worrying  you  with  statistics  of  what  it  is  to-day  ! 
The  contrast  is  complete  enough  if  I  tell  you  that  by  the  last  census 
before  the  establishment  of  our  College,  the  agricultural  products  of 
Massachusetts  alone  were  thirty-two  millions  of  dollars,  and  the  value 
of  her  live  stock  over  twelve  millions.  We  have  besides  repaid  the 
debt  to  England  by  the  export  of  sheep,  and  cattle,  and  the  fast  trot- 
ting horse,  and,  besides  the  finest  agricultural  implements  in  the  world, 
have  added  the  sewing-machine  to  every  farmer's  fireside,  improved 
every  loom  in  the  world,  and  presented  its  inhabitants  with  the  tele- 
graph and  the  telephone,  and  the  fastest  sailing  vessels  which  have 
yet  been  known. 

From  the  earliest  settlement  of  this  country  to  the  presidency  of 
Washington  there  is  no  record  of  any  active  efforts  to  improve  our 
agriculture,  except  by  a  few  feeble  attempts  at  agricultural  journals, 
and  scattering  agricultural  associations  generally  of  a  social  char- 
acter. 


29 

Ou  the  7th  December,  1796,  WashiDgton  in  his  Annual' Message, 
at  the  Second  Session  of  the  Fourth  Congress,  read  these  words : 

' '  It  will  not  be  doubted  that  with  reference  either  to  individual  or 
national  welfare,  agriculture  is  of  primary  importance.  In  proportion 
as  nations  advance  in  population,  and  other  circumstances  of  maturity, 
this  truth  becomes  more  apparent,  and  renders  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil  more  and  more  an  object  of  public  patronage.  Institutions  for 
promoting  it  grow  up  supported  by  the  public  purse  ;  and  to  what 
object  can  it  be  dedicated  with  greater  propriety.  Among  the  means 
which  have  been  employed  to  this  end,  none  have  been  attended  with 
greater  success  than  the  establishment  of  Boards,  composed  of  pub- 
lic characters,  charged  with  collecting  and  diffusing  information,  and 
enabled  by  premiums,  and  small  pecuniary  aid,  to  encourage  and 
assist  a  spirit  of  discovery  and  improvement.  This  species  of  estab- 
lishment contributes  doubly  to  the  increase  of  improvements,  by  stim- 
ulating to  enterprise  and  experiment,  and  by  drawing  to  a  common 
centre  the  results  everywhere  of  individual  skill  and  observation,  and 
spreading  them- thence  over  the  whole  nation.  Experience  accord- 
ingly has  shown  that  they  are  very  cheap  instruments  of  immense 
national  importance. 

I  have  heretofore  proposed  to  the  consideration  of  Congress  the 
expediency  of  establishing  a  National  University,  and  also  a  Military 
Academy." 

The  propositions  for  a  National  University  and  a  National  Board 
of  Agriculture,  were  referred  to  a  Committee,  and  no  report  so  far 
as  I  can  learn  was  ever  made  upon  the  subject.  The  Military  Acad- 
emy became  an  Institution.  Life  was  given  to  that  which  teaches 
men  to  kill  their  fellow  men,  but  no  encouragement  to  that  science 
by  which  all  men  live.  Here  again  is  presented  a  striking  contrast 
inourhistory.  In  1817,  to  the  honor  of  Massachusetts  be  it  stated, the 
Berkshire  Agricultural  Society,  under  the  lead  of  Elkanah  Watson,  pre- 
sented a  memorial  to  Congress  in  favor  of  a  National  Board  of  Agri- 
culture, by  the  Hon.  John  M.  Hurlbut,  their  representative.  Mr. 
Hurlbut  was  Chairman  of  a  Select  Committee  on  the  subject,  and 
reported  in  its  favor;  but  although  sustained  by  others  with  ability, 
the  project  was  defeated  by  an  overwhelming  vote,  owing  to  the 
constitutional  scruples  of  some,  views  of  expediency  by  others^  and 
entire  indifference  and  want  of  appreciation  of  the  magnitude  and 
importance  of  the  world's  most  vital  interest.  Mr.  Hurlbut  stated 
that  he  was  met  with  sneers  and  ridicule,  particularly  from  Southern 


30 

members  for  urging  this  subject.  The  same  year  Mr.  Madison  wrote, 
"  I  have  never  taken  into  particular  consideration  the  expediency  or 
the  best  plan  of  such  an  institution,  being  among  those  who  do  not 
view  it  as  within  the  powers  vested  in  the  General  Government." 
And  now  what  a  change  !  We  have  had  an  Agricultural  Department 
of  the  National  Government  in  the  Patent  Office  since  1837,  or  there- 
abouts, and  afterwards  what  is  known  as  a  Commissioner  of  Agricul- 
ture ;  and  during  the  last  winter  the  Democratic  House  of  Represen- 
tatives passed  a  bill  establishing  an  Agricultural  Department  with  a 
Secretary  who  was  to  be  a  member  of  the  President's  Cabinet.  What 
has  become  of  Mr.  Madison's  constitutional  scruples? 

In  the  Patent  Office  report  for  1847,  Mr.  Charles  L.  Fleischmann 
made  the  first  elaborate  report  on  Agricultural  Schools  which  he  had 
visited  abroad.  During  the  last  century  the  earliest  Society  for  pro- 
moting Agriculture  was  established  in  Philadelphia,  in  1785,  and 
seven  years  after,  the  "  Massachusetts  Society  for  promoting  Agri- 
culture," was  incorporated,  March  7,  1792.  The  New  York  Agri- 
cultural Societ}'  was  incorporated  the  following  year.  I  Jearn  that 
an  Agricultural  Society  was  also  incorporated  in  South  Carolina  dur- 
ing the  last  century. 

In  1803  the  "Western  Society  of  Middlesex  Husbandmen"  formed 
in  1794  was  incorporated,  with  a  provision  that  members  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Society  should  be  honorary  members.  A  voluntary  Agricul- 
tural Association  was  established  at  Sturbridge  in  1799,  one  at  Ken- 
nebec in  1791  and  one  in  Brookfield  in  1807  ;  and  some  other  volun- 
tary Agricultural  Associations  had  doubtless  been  formed  in  New 
York,  and  Massachusetts  previous  to  1807.  Meanwhile  in  1801,  a 
suggestion  was  made  by  an  anonymous  writer  to  the  Massachusetts 
Society  that  a  fair  be  held  on  Cambridge  common  in  May  and  Octo- 
ber, and  bounties  given  for  certain  articles.  This  plan  was  not  to 
have  shows  merely,  but  stated  open  markets  for  the  sale  of  agricultu- 


NOTE. — Among  the  earlier  contributors  to  agricultural  education  and  interests  I  should 
not  omit  to  mention  the  New  York  Horticultural  Society,  organized  in  1818,  which.was  the 
first  society  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States ;  the  Pennsylvania  Horticultural  Society,  organ- 
ized in  1827,  and  incorporated  March  24,  1831.  The  American  Pomological  Society,  first 
known  as  the  American  Congress  of  Fruit  Growers,  was  organized  in  1848,  and  the  Mass. 
Horticultural  Society  in  1829. 

Note.— Nor  do  I  overlook  the  great  good  which  the  various  agricultural  journals  of  the 
country  have  done  in  exciting  the  interest  of  the  people  in  agricultual  knowledge.  I  can 
only  mention  the  "  American  Farmer,"  published  in  Baltimore  in  1819,  and  ever  since, 
which  was  the  first  regular  agricultural  journal  published  in  this  country,  and  the 
'•  New  England  Farmer,"  which  originated  in  1822.  The  later  journals  are  too  numerous 
to  mention. 


31 

ral  products.  The  same  year  1801  brought  forth  a  suggestion  before 
the  Massachusetts  Societ}^  for  the  permanent  endowment  and  support 
of  a  professorship  of  Natural  History,  and  a  Botanic  Garden  at 
Cambridge,  which  were  in  fact  established  in  1804,  whilst  before 
1804  the  Massachusetts  Society  had  commenced  the  award  of  premi- 
ums for  agricultural  products,  and  had  entered  upon  that  generous 
and  patriotic  career  of  encouragement  to  our  farmers  which  has  done 
so  much  for  the  agriculture  of  New  England,  and  the  improvement 
of  its  stock. 

It  was  in  1807  that  a  new  era  in  the  progress  of  agricultural  edu- 
cation dawned  in  New  England,  which  at  first  little  noticed,  was 
destined  to  mark  an  eventful  change,  and  to  hasten  the  progress 
to  an  agricultural  development.  Up  to  this  time  so  far  as  can  be 
learned,  no  agricultural  society  had  thought  of  a  "  cattle  show  "  with 
premiums  to  be  awarded  in  public,  but  the  societies  had  confined 
themselves  to  printed  publications,  and  to  awards  for  essays  and  field 
crops,  and  for  the  importation  of  the  best  sheep.  In  the  autumn  of 
1807  Mr.  Elkanah  Watson,  a  native  of  Plymouth  and  a  direct  descend- 
ant of  Gov.  Win  slow  who  in  1624  had  brought  the  three  heifers  and 
the  bull  to  Plymouth,  procured  the  first  pair  of  merino  sheep  which 
had  been  introduced  into  Berkshire,  and  perhaps  the  whole  Common- 
wealth. Col.  Humphreys  of  Connecticut,  then  late  minister  to  Spain, 
had  imported  75  ewes  and  27  rams  in  1802,  and  one  Seth  Adams  had 
the  same  year  claimed  of  the  Massachusetts  society  a  premium  for 
two  merino  sheep  imported  from  France.  But  the  records  of  the 
society  do  not  show  that  any  premium  was  awarded  Mr.  Adams,  nor 
indeed  that  they  were  ever  in  the  state. 

Mr.  Watson  gave  notice  of  an  exhibition  of  his  two  sheep  on  the 
public  square  in  Pittsfield.  He  wrote  that  "  many  farmers  and  even 
females  were  attracted  to  this  first  novel  and  humble  exhibition. 
From  this  lucky  incident  I  reasoned  thus  :  If  two  animals  are  capable 
of  exciting  so  much  attention,  what  would  be  the  effect  of  a  display 
on  a  large  scale  of  different  animals  ?  The  farmers  present  responded 
to  my  remarks  with  approbation.  We  thus  became  acquainted,  and 
from  that  moment  to  the  present  have  agricultural  fairs  and  cattle 
shows,  with  all  their  connections,  predominated  in  my  mind.."  On  the 
1st  of  August,  1810  an  appeal  drawn  by  Mr.  Watson  and  signed  by 
26  persons  appointed  an  exhibition  of  stock  on  the  1st  of  October. 
This  effort  was  successful,  and  resulted  in  a  charter  of  the  Berkshire 
Agricultural  Society  the  ensuing  winter  of  1811.     In  the  September 


32 

following  a  formal  and  extended  festival  was  held  with  "  a  procession 
of  69  oxen  drawing  a  plow  held  by  the  oldest  man  in  the  county,  a 
band  of  music,  the  society  bearing  appropriate  ensigns,  each  member 
decorated  with  a  badge  of  two  heads  of  wheat  in  his  hat,  and  the 
officers  three  heads  secured  by  a  green  ribbon."  Mr.  Watson  as  pres- 
ident delivered  the  address  and  awarded  the  premiums  which  amount- 
ed to  seventy  dollars  only. 

At  the  next  exhibition  in  1812  the  premiums  were  $208.  It  seems 
now  strange,  though  illustrative  of  the  conservative  tendency  of 
human  nature,  and  distrust  of  new  things,  that  ''  valuable  premiums 
were  offered  for  articles  of  domestic  industry  ;  the  da}^  arrived  ;  a 
large  room  was  prepared  ;  many  superior  articles  of  domestic  manu- 
facture, especially  woollen  and  linen,  were  exhibited  ;  but  no  female 
appeared  to  claim  the  premiums.  Native  timidity  and  the  fear  of 
ridicule  restrained  them.  No  one  dared  to  be  the  first  to  support  the 
new  project."  How  did  the  original  mind,  so  full  of  resources,  of 
Mr.  Watson  surmount  the  difficulty?  "1  left  the  hall,"  he  says, 
"  and  with  no  small  difijculty  prevailed  on  my  good  wife  to  accom- 
pany me  to  the  house  of  exhibition.  I  then  despatched  messengers 
to  the  ladies  of  the  village  announcing  that  she  waited  for  them  at 
the  cloth  show.  They  hastened  out.  The  farmers'  wives  and  daugh- 
teifs,  who  were  secretly  watching  the  movement  of  the  waters,  also 
sallied  forth,  and  the  hall  was  speedily  filled  with  female  spectators 
and  candidates  for  premiums."  '  ^ 

I  have  thus  dwelt  more  at  length  upon  the  circumstances  of  the 
birth  of  the  Berkshire  "cattle  show"  than  might  seem  necessary, 
not  because  it  presents  a  curious  parallel  with  the  first  cattle  show 
on  Plymouth  Rock,  but  because  the  results  of  both  present  such 
striking  changes  and  contrasts.  The  little  one  has  become  ten  thous- 
and. The  grain  of  mustard  seed  overshadows  the  land.  I  verily 
believe  that  the  social  influences,  the  associate  power,  the  joint  sym- 
pathies and  desires  and  the  educational  wants,  aye,  and  the  public 
influence  on  public  men,  of  the  agricultural  societies  which  have  fol- 
lowed this  little  show  of  two  forlorn,  imported  sheep  under  the  elm 
at  Pittsfield,  were  moving  forces  without  which  the  People,  the  Great 
Creators  would  never  have  blown  the  breath  of  life  into  the  Board  of 
Agriculture  and  the  Agricultural  College.  If  geese  saved  Rome  why 
should  not  two  sheep  save  agricultural  education?  But  it  is  not  the 
trifle,  as  such  which  saves,  and  that  bv  accident  as  in    the  case  of 


33 

Rome,  but  the  idea  that  the  trifle  may  enforce,  which  generally  saves 

or  benefits  the  world. 

"  A  small  drop  of  ink 
Falling  like  dew  upon  a  thought  produces 
That  which  makes  thousands,  perhaps  millions, 
Think." 

In  1849  Hon.  M.  P.  Wilder  in  an  address  before  the  Norfolk 
Agricultural  Society  broached  the  subject  of  an  Agricultural  College, 
and  the  next  year  a  bill  to  establish  an  Agricultural  College  and  an 
experimental  farm  passed  tlie  Senate  of  Massachusetts  unanimously, 
but  was  defeated  in  the  House.  A  board  of  commissioners  wat?  then 
created,  consisting  of  Mr.  Wilder,  Edward  Hitchcock,  Samu£l  A. 
Eliot,  Thomas  E.  Payson  and  F^li  Warren,  and  in  1851  their  report 
with  an  elaborate  account  of  the  agricultural  schools  in  Europe,  vis- 
ited by  Prof.  Hitchcock  was  made  to  the  Legislature.  It  commenced 
by  the  remark  that  '*  the  first  seed  ever  planted  was  the  first  effort 
of  civilization,"  and  stated  that  no  institution  expressly  for  instruc- 
tion in  agriculture  iiad  then  been  established  either  in  this  Common- 
wealth or  in  any  other  state.  No  immediate  action  resulted  from 
their  recommendations.  In  1852  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Agri- 
culture was  established.  Mr.  Wilder  was  persistent,  and  in  l.SoG 
obtained  a  charter  of  "•  The  Trustees  of  the  Massachusetts  School  of 
Agriculture, "andduring  1856  he  also  acquired  fromCongress  a  charter 
of  the  United  States  Agricultural  Society,  which  was  opposed  in  the 
Senate  by  Jefferson  Davis  on  the  ground,  which  now  seems  absurd, 
that  Congress  had  no  power  to  create  corporations.  In  18(30  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  consisting  of  Richard  S.  Fay, 
Marshall  P.  Wilder,  and  Ex-Lieut. -Governor  Simon  Brown  made  an 
elaborate  report  upon  agricultural  education,  and  the  Board  caused 
to  be  published  for  the  use  of  schools,  a  "'Manual  of  Agriculture," 
of  which  George  B.  Emerson  and  Charles  L.  Flint,  its  accomplished 
secretary,  were  the  authors.  All  this  information,  showing  however 
a  difference  of  opinion  among  leading  agriculturists,  was  before  the 
public  ;  and  the  farming  community  had  become  more  alive  to  the 
necessity  of  more  scientific  and  exact  knowledge  of  agriculture  than 
ever  before,  when  Hon.  Justin  S.  Morrill's  bill  was  introduced  by 
him  in  1857,  in  the  National  House  of  Representatives,  supported 
by  numerous  petitions  of  the  people.  It  was  passed  and  vetoed  b}^ 
Presi'dentBuchananin  1860  ;  and  the  pendency  of  that  bill,  and  a  ques- 
tion of  its  location  in  Springfield  or  elsewhere  had  delayed  action  upon 
5 


34 

the  charter  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Massachusetts  School  of  Agriculture. 
That  charter  liad  passed  into  other  hands.  Mr.  Morrill's  bill  was  dead. 
In  the  winter  of  1861  a  renewed  effort  was  made  by  Mr.  Wilder, 
supported  by  petitions  from  all  parts  of  the  Commonwealth  for  a 
State  Agricultural  College.  Hearings  were  had  before  the  commit- 
tee of  education,  and  great  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  botli 
sides.  The  committee  hesitated,  and  finally  "  let  I  dare  not  wait 
upon  I  would"  by  delaying  the  question.  This  was  accomplished  by 
reporting  a  resolve.  Chap.  98,  of  the  Resolves  of  1861,  authorizing 
Gov.  Andrew  to  appoint  a  commission  of  three  persons  to  serve 
without  pay,  to  report  a  plan  for  an  Agricultural  College.  The  title 
of  the  Resolve  was  misleading,  "Resolve  in  favor  of  the  establish- 
ment of  an  Agricultural  School  or  College."  It  was  generally 
understood  that  this  course  was  taken  to  get  rid  of  the  question 
without  a  decision  on  its  merits.  We  had  light  enough.  All  these 
reports  were  before  the  people.  With  this  knowledge  the  only  way 
to  organize  a  college  was  to  organize,  as  Mr.  Greeley  said  of  specie 
payments,  that  the  best  way  was  to  resume.  No  detailed  plan  of  a 
college  could  be  mnde  beforehand,  especially  if  there  were  no  indica- 
tions what  scale  of  a  college  was  desired.  Plans  enough  were  already 
before  the  public.  Mr.  Thomas  Pluukett  of  Berkshire,  Increase 
Newton  of  Worcester,  two  elderly  gentleman,  and  your  historian 
here  were  ap|)ointed  on  the  commission.  The  minds  of  neither  of 
my  seniors  had  ever  been  directed  to  the  -subject,  and  they  met  with 
a  feeling  that  the  action  of  the  Legislature  was  a  feint,  and  that 
nothing  was  expected  of  them.  We  were  advised  not  to  report  at 
once.  Mr.  Morrill's  bill  would  be  again  offered  under  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  if  it  passed,  the  mind  of  the  Legislature  would  be  forced  to  enter- 
tain the  subject,  and  make  full  inquiry.  We  met  once,  when  from 
the  fact  that  I  was  at  that  time  an  Overseer  of  Harvard  College,  I 
was  delegated  to  confer  with  Mr.  Felton  its  president,  and  inquire 
officially  whether  any  arrangement  could  be  made  or  suggested  for 
an  Agricultural  College,  aided  by  the  Bussey  fund.  Mr.  Felton  took 
a  few  days  to  reply,  and  finally  answered  very  courteously  that  Har- 
vard College  took  no  interest  in  the  subject.  We  met  a  second  time, 
when  I  reported  concerning  Harvard  College,  and  upon  some  ques- 
tions as  to  the  Smith  fund  at  Northampton.  1  have  never  again  had 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  either  of  these  gentlemen  before  their  death. 
Meanwhile  as  I  have  stated,  on  Dec.  14.  1857  Hon.  Justin  S. 
Morrill,  then  a  National  Representative  from  Vermont,  introduced  a 


35 

bill,  to  grant  hind  scrip  to  the  several  States  and  Territories  at  the 
rate  of  20,000  acres  for  each  Senator  artd  Representative  in  Congress, 
for  the  endowment  of  a  college  in  each,  to  teach  such  branches  of 
learning  as  are  related  to  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts.  His 
idea  was  to  bring  as  cheaply  as  possible  to  the  farmer  and  mechanic, 
such  education  as  is  necessary  to  their  several  pursuits  in  life,  to 
recognize  agriculture  as  at  least  a  leading,  if  not  the  chief  interest  of 
a  state. 

As  the  Spaniards  when  they  took  possession  of  new  countiies 
always  raised  the  standard  of  the  C'ross.  an  emblem  to  die  by,  so  did 
Mr.  Morrill  with  enlarged  foresight  resolve  to  })lant  a  standard  of 
agricultural  education  on  the  hilltop  of  every  state  like  a  beacon  light 
to  direct  men  how  to  live.  His  bill  was  referred  to  the  Committee 
on  Public  Lands,  who  delayed  their  report  four  njonths  to  April  15, 
1858,  and  then  reported  against  it.  Mr.  Morrill  enforced  his  views 
with  elaborate  and  eloquent  arguments,  from  which  if  there  were 
time  I  should  be  pleased  to  quote  to-day.  After  many  delays  the 
bill  passed  fourteen  months  after  it  was  offered,  but  was  vetoed  by 
President  Buchanan  on  the  29th  of  Feb.  (according  to  the  Congres- 
sional Record),  1859,  for  various  reasons  :  1st  because  it  was  uncon- 
stitutional ;  2nd  because  the  government  could  not  afford  the  outlay  ; 
ord  because  it  would  injure  the  new  States  by  preventing  settlements  ; 
4th  because  the  law  would  be  of  doubtful  benefit;  5th  because  it 
would  weaken  existing  colleges  ;  6th  because  this  vast  gift  from  the 
government  would  tend  to  alienate  the  states  from  the  national  gov- 
ernment. Mr.  Morrill  made  a  full  and  triumphant  reply  to  this  veto, 
but  the  veto  was  sustained.  Mr.  Morrill  persevered.  In  December, 
1861  he  again  offered  his  bill,  providing  for  oO.OOO  acres  for  each 
Senator  and  Representative,  which  was  also  referred  to  the  Commit- 
tee on  Public  Lands,  which  held  it  until  the  29th  of  May,  1862, 
when  Mr.  Potter  of  Wisconsin  reported  against  it,  and  it  was  refer- 
red to  the  committee  of  the  whole.  Meanwhile  before  the  committee 
of  the  House  had  reported  adversely,  on  the  2nd  of  May,  Hon.  Ben- 
jamin Wade  of  Ohio  offered  a  bill  of  the  same  purport,  which  was 
referred  to  the  Senate  committee  on  Public  Lands,  of  which  Senator 
Harlan  of  Iowa  was  chairman.  Promptly  on  the  14  th  of  May,  before 
the  House  committee  had  reported,  he  reported  the  bill  with  slight 
amendments,  and  on  the  10th  of  June  it  passed  the  Senate  without 
strong  opposition.  The  next  day  the  bill  was  sent  to  the  House,  and 
against  the  opposition  of  the  Committee  on   Public  Lands  passed  on 


36 

the  19tli  of  June,  1<SG2,  2o  years  ago  last  Sunday;  and  Abraham 
Lincoln  attached  his  name  on  the  second  of  July  following. 

Thus  did  Mr.  Morrill  by  his  industry  and  persistency,  like  Elkanah 
Watson  and  Marshall  V.  Wilder,  succeed  in  his  great  project.  Dur- 
ing peace  under  Washington,  agriculture  could  not  obtain  even  rec- 
ognition by  the  government,  but  the  arts  of  war  were  encouraged,  I 
do  not  say  improperly  encouraged.  In  1862  under  Lincoln,  in  the 
midst  of  a  civil  war  in  which  more  forces  were  engaged,  more  blood 
shed,  at  a  greater  waste  of  treasure  than  were  ever  before  known, 
Mr.  Morrill's  mind  still  turned  from  the  work  of  destruction  to  the 
work  of  production  which  sustains  men  and  nations,  without  which 
there  would  be  no  society,  no  commerce,  no  manufactures,  no  trades, 
and  populous  life  of  man  could  not  exist.  Taking  the  lead  in  draw- 
ing laws  for  raising  revenue  by  internal  taxes  and  by  tariffs,  he 
found  time  in  the  midst  of  war,  to  encourage  the  arts  of  peace. 
He  believed  that  '-Ceres  should  be  counted  among  the  Gods  of 
Olympus." 

And  now,  my  friends,  should  you  ask  me  to  epitomize  the  progress 
of  agricultural  education  in  this  country,  I  should  name  Watson, 
Wilder  and  Morrill !  * 


♦General  United  States  Act  in  Relation  to  Agricultural  Colleges.    (United  States  Statutes, 

Vol.  12,  Chap.  130,  P.  503). 
An  Act  donating  Public  Lands  to  the  several  States  and  Territories,  which  may  provide 

Colleges  for  the  benefit  of  Agriculture  and  the  Mechanic  Arts. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America 
in  congress  assembled:  That  there  be  granted  to  the  several  States,  for  the  purpose  herein- 
after mentioned,  an  amount  of  public  land,  to  be  apportioned  to  each  State  a  quantity 
equal  to  thirty  thousand  acres  for  each  Senator  and  Representative  in  congress  to  which 
the  States  are  i-espectively  ei.titled  by  the  apportionment  under  the  census  of  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty  :  provided,  that  no  mineral  lands  shall  be  selected  or  purchased  under 
the  provisions  of  this  act. 

Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted:  That  the  land  aforesaid,  after  being  surveyed,  shall 
be  apportioned  to  the  several  States  in  sections  or  subdivisions  of  sections,  not  less  than 
one  quarter  of  a  section  ;  *  *  *  said  scrip  to  be  sold  by  said  States  and  the  proceeds 
thereof  applied  to  the  uses  and  purposes  prescribed  in  this  act,  and  for  no  other  use  or 
purpose  whatsoever:    *    *    * 

Sec.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted:  That  all  moneys  derived  from  the  sale  of  the  lands 
aforesaid,  by  the  States  to  which  the  lands  are  apportioned,  and  from  the  sales  of  land 
scrip  hereinbefore  provided  for,  shall  be  invested  in  stocks  of  the  United  States,  or  of  the 
States,  or  some  other  safe  stocks,  yielding  not  less  than  five  per  centum  upon  the  par  value 
of  said  stocks;  and  that  the  moneys  so  invested  shall  constitute  a  perpetual  fund,  the 
capital  of  which  shall  remain  forever  undiminished  (except  so  far  as  may  be  provided  in 
section  fifth  of  thi^act),  and  the  interest  of  whicli  shall  be  inviolably  apjjropriated  by  each 
State  tohich  may  take  and  claim  the  benefit  to  this  act,  to  the  endowment,  supjwrt  and  mainte- 
nance of  at  least  one  college  where  the  leading  object  shall  be,  without  excluding  other  scientific 
and  classical  studies,  and  including  military  tactics^  to  teach  such  branches  of  learning  as  are 
related  to  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts,  in  such  manner  as  the  legislatures  of  the  States 


37 

Mr.  Morrill's  bill  bfecarae  a  law  July  2nd,  1862,  and  during  the 
Legislative  session  of  1863,  there  were  presented  the  serious  ques- 
tions of  the  acceptance  of  the  Act  by  Massachusetts,  and  of  the 
incorporation  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College.  Mr.  Erastus 
O.  Haven  was  chairman  of  the  joint  committee  to  whom  these  questions 
were  submitted.  Tiie  committee  entered  upon  a  most  thorough  and 
candid  inquiry,  and  it  is  due  to  that  committee  that  it  should  be 
stated  that  a  more  faithful,  and  fair  investigation  was  never  had. 
Early  in  the  session  Gov.  Andrew  had  assembled  at  his  house  a  levee 
of  the  leading  men  upon  both  sides  of  the  question,  and  advocated 
with  all  his  power  the  association  of  the  college  with  the  Bussey  insti- 
tution which  was  or  v^as  to  be  a  part  of  Harvard  College,  but  had  not 
then  been  opened  as  a  school.  Prof.  Agassiz  was  there  urging  the 
annexation  of  the  Agricultural  College  to  Harvard,  but  no  members 
of  the  corporation  were  presenL,  and  there  was  no  evidence  that  its 
authorities  took  any  interest  in  the  question,  except  that  its  president, 
Rev.  Thomas  Hill,  who  had  acceded  to  the  office  in  October,  1862,  ex- 
pressed a  desjre  to  have  the  college  so  located  in  the  act  of  incorpo- 
ration.    The  disposition  of  a  large  majority  of  the  gentlemen  present 

may  respectively  prescribe,  in  order  to  promote  the  liberal  and  practical  education  of  the 
industrial  classes  in  the  several  pursuits  and  professions  in  life. 

Sec.  5.  And  he  it  further  enacted:  That  the  graut  of  land  and  laud  scrip  hereby  author- 
ized shall  be  made  on  the  following  conditions,  to  which,  as  well  as  to  the  provisions  here- 
inbefore contained,  the  previous  assent  of  the  several  States  shall  be  signified  by  legislat- 
ive acts  : 

First.  If  any  portion  of  the  fund  invested,  as  provided  by  the  foregoing  section,  or  any 
portion  of  the  interest  thereon,  shall,  by  any  action  or  contingency,  be  diminished  or  lost,  it 
shall  be  replaced  by  the  State  to  tohich  it  belongs,  so  that  the  capital  of  the  fund  shall  remain 
forever  undiminished;  and  the  annual  interest  shall  be  regularly  applied  without  diminu- 
tion to  the  purposes  named  in  the  fourth  section  of  this  act,  except  that  a  sum  not 
exceeding  ten  per  centum  upon  the  amount  received  by  any  State  under  the  provisions 
of  this  act,  may  be  expended  for  the  purchase  of  lands  for  sites  or  experimental  farms, 
whenever  authorized  by  the  respective  legislatures  of  said  States. 

Second.  No  portion  of  said  fund,  nor  the  interest  thereon,  shall  be  applied,  directly  or 
indirectly,  under  any  j)retenc€  whatever,  to  the  purchase,  erection,  jyreservation,  or  repair  of 
any  building  or  buildings. 

Third.  Any  State  which  may  take  and  claim  the  benefit  of  the  provisions  of  this  act 
shall  provide  within  five  years,  at  least  not  less  than  one  college,  as  described  in  the  fourth 
section  of  this  act,  or  the  grant  to  such  State  shall  cease ;  and  said  state  shall  be  bound  to 
pay  the  United  States  the  amount  received  of  any  lands  previously  sold,  and  that  the  title 
to  purchasers  under  the  State  shall  be  valid. 

Fourth.  An  annual  report  is  to  be  made  regarding  the  progress  of  each  college,  record- 
ing any  improvements  and  experiments  made,  ivith  their  cost  and  results,  and  such  other  mat- 
ters, including  State  industrial  and  economical  statistics,  as  may  be  supposed  useful;  one 
copy  of  which  shall  be  transmitted  by  mail  free,  by  each,  to  all  th<-  other  colleges  which  may  be 
endoioed  under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  and  alsq  one  copy  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

Sixth.  No  State  while  in  a  condition  of  rebellion  or  insurrection  against  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  shall  be  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  this  act. 

Approved  July  2,  1862. 


38 

was  with  Gov.  Andrew,  whilst  the  smaller  luiiiiber,  more  particularly 
in  sympathy  and  alliance  with  farmers  of  the  Commonwealth,  said 
little,  but  concluded  to  "  bide  their  time." 

The  whole  subject  was  finally  before  the  committee,  which  had 
many  hearings,  including  evening  sessions.  Mr.  Wilder,  Mr.  Flint 
and  I  were  attached  to  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  and  were  appointed 
a  committee  to  express  the  views  of  the  Board,  that  the  Agricultural 
College  for  farmers'  sons  should  be  located  in  the  country,  and  not 
in  nor  near  a  great  city.  We  feared  its  t'emptations,  we  asked  for 
pure  country  air,  we  painted  a  scene  which  would  be  purely  rustic, 
and  where  the  time  and  attention  of  the  students  would  not  be  diverted 
bv  the  attractions  of  a  city.  We  felt  that  we  represented  the  opinion 
of  the  farmers  ;  and  surely  never  did  men  plead  for  a  cause  in  which 
they  had  no  personal  interest  with  an  earnestness,  and  confidence,  it 
would  be  unbecoming  to  say  an  eloquence,  more  effective  than  we 
prayed  the  committee  not  to  decide  the  location  in  their,  bill.  We 
knew  that  the  first  impression  of  the  committee,  from  the  position  of 
Gov.  Andrew,  and  the  pressure  of  leading  men,  city  men,  not  par- 
ticularly interested  in  farming,  was  in  favor  of  Harvard  College. 
But  we  satisfied  them  that  it  was  a  mistake  that  Harvard  College,  as 
a  corporation,  took  any  interest  in  the  subject.  It  had  made  no 
effort  to  launch  the  Bussey  Institution.  It  is  now  open  with  one  to 
three  students,  and  never  I  think  more  than  nine. 

The  committee  were  fully  converted,  and  reported  the  act  of  incor- 
poration, which  became  a  law  April  29,  1863,  whilst  the  acceptance 
of  the  congressional  grant  of  30,000  acres  for  each  Senator  and  Rep- 
resentatiye  in  Congress  was  declared  eleven  days  before.  Massachu- 
setts claims  to  be  the  first  state  to  accept  the  act.  Fourteen  gentle- 
men, one  from  each  county  in  the  state,  were  named  in  the 
charter.  These  names  were  inserted  by  the  committee  without 
the  knowledge  of,  and  without  consultation  with  any  man  named 
therein.  These  names  furnish  striking  proof  how  thoroughly  the 
committee  were  convinced  that  the  college  should  not  be  located  near 
the  city,  because  so  many  of  the  incorporators  had  committed  them- 
selves before  the  committee  against  the  Harvard  College  connection, 
including  the  corporators  who  resided  in  the  counties  which  included 
the  locations  of  Harvard  and  the  Bussev  farm  I 


39 
The  Joint  Special  Committee  consisted  of  the  following  members : 

SENATORS. 

Eiastus  O.  Haven,  Middlesex,  William  D.  JSwan,  Norfolk, 

George  D wight,  Hampden. 

REPRESENTATIVES. 

A.  A.  Ranney,  Boston,  Charles  Nowell,  Boston, 

Stephen  H.  Williams,  Roxbury,    Thomas  White,  Randolph, 
J.  L.  S.  Thompson,  Lancaster,     Samuel  Smith,  Jr.,  Granby, 
P.  Francis  Wells,  Cambridge. 
This  committee  acted  also  under  the  following  resolve  : 
Resolve  authorizing  certain  expenditures  by  the  committee  on 

AN    agricultural    COLLEGE. 

Resolved^  That  the  joint  special  committee  to  whom  was  referred 
SO  much  of  the  governor's  address  as  relates  to  an  agricultural  col- 
lege, the  society  of  natural  history  and  the  institute  of  technology, 
have  raithority  to  invite  conference  with  parties  interested,  or  who 
may  impart  valuable  information,  and  also  may  visit  any  localities 
or  institutions,  and  incur  other  needful  expenditures  to  an  amount 
not  exceeding  three  hundred  dollars.     Approved  February  17 ^  1863. 

Chap.  10(J.— An  Act  to  provide  for  the  reception  of  a  grant  of  Congress,  and  to  create  a 

fund  for  the  promotion  of  education  in  agriculture  and  tlie  mechanic  arts. 
Be  it  enacted,  etc.,  as  follows: 

Skction  L.  The  Commonwealth  ot  Massachusetts  hei'eby  accepts  the  grant  ofl'ered  to 
it  by  the  laiited  States,  as  set  forth  and  defined  in  the  act  of  congress  entitled  "An  Act 
donating  public  lands  to  the  several  states  and  territories  which  may  provide  colleges  for 
the  benefit  of  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts,"  said  act  being  chapter  one  hundred  and 
thirty  of  the  statutes  of  the  Ignited  States,  passed  at  the  second  session  of  the  thirty-sev 
enth  congress,  and  approved  by  the  president  July  second,  in  the  year  eighteen  hundred 
and  sixty-two,  upon  the  terms  and  conditions  contained  and  set  forth  in  said  act  of  con- 
gress ;  and  the  governor  of  the  Commonwealth  is  hereby  authorized  and  instructed  to  give 
due  notice  thereof,  to  the  government  of  the  United  States. 

Sectiox  2.  The  governor  is  hereby  authorized  and  instructed  to  receive,  by  himself  or 
his  order,  from  the  secretary  of  the  interior,  or  any  other  person  authorized  to  issue  the 
same,  all  the  land  scrip  to  which  this  Commonwealth  may  be  entitled  by  the  provisions 
of  the  before-mentioned  act  of  (;ongress. 

Section  8.  The  governor,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  council,  is  hereby  author- 
ized and  instructed  to  appoint  a  commissioner,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  locate,  without 
unnecessary  delay,  all  the  land  scrip  which  may  come  into  the  possession  of  the  Common- 
we.alth  by  virtue  of  this  act,  and  to  sell  the  same  from  time  to  time,  on  such  terms  as  the 
governor  and  council  shall  determine.  Said  commissioner  shall  give  a  bond,  with  suffic- 
ient sureties,  in  the  penal  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  to  be  approved  by  the  governor 
and  council,  that  he  will  faithfully  perform  the  duties  of  his  otlice,  and  shall  render  full 
and  accurate  returns  to  them,  at  the  end  of  every  six  months,  or  oftener  if  required  ,to  do 
so  by  them,  of  his  proceedings  under  this  act.  The  compensation  of  said  connnissioner 
shall  be  fixed  by  the  governor  and  council,  and  shall  be  paid  out  of  the  treasury  of  the 
Commonwealth,  and  the  governor  is  hereby  authorized  to  draw  his  warrants  therefor. 

Section  4.  All  moneys  received  by  virtue  of  this  act,  for  the  sale  of  land  scrip,  shall 
be  immediately  deposited  with  the  treasurer  of  the  Commonwealth,  who  shall  invest  and 
hold  the  same  in  accordance  with  the  fourth  section  of  the  afore-mentioned  act  of  con- 
gress. The  moneys  so  invested  shall  constitute  a  perpetual  fund,  to  be  entitled  the  Fund 
for  the  Promotion  of  Education  in  Agriculture  and  the  Mechanic  Arts,  which  shall  be  ap- 
propriated and  used  in  such  manner  as  the  legislatui'e  shall  prescribe,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  said  act  of  congress. 
SE("riON  .').    This  act  shall  take  eft'ect  upon  its  v>aBsage. 

Approved  April  18,  1863. 


40 

Of  the  incorporators  since  we  last  met  here,  Marshall  P.  Wilder, 
the  father  of  agricultural  education  in  New  England,  the  enthusias- 
tic, generous,  persistent,  mild  mannered,  peace  making,  patriotic 
gentleman,  whose  love  of    nature    and    nature's    God    enlarged    his 

whole  being, 

"  Having  won 
•  The  bounds  of  man's  appointed  years,  at  last. 

Life's  blessings  all  enjoyed,  life's  labors  done, 

Serenely  to  his  final  rest  has  passed. 
And  Ave  are  glad  that  he  has  lived  thus  long. 
And  glad  that  he  has  gone  to  his  reward ; 
Nor  can  we  deem  that  Nature  did  him  wrong 
Softly  to  disengage  the  vital  cord. 
For  ere  his  hand  grew  palsied,  and  his  eye 
Dim  with  mists  of  age,  it  was  his  time  to  die." 


ACT  OF  INCORPORATION.    (1863.  Chap.  220).  An  ACT  TO  INCORPORATE  the  TRUSTEES 

OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  in  General  Court  assembled,  and  by 
the  authority  of  the  same,  as  follows  : 

SECTION  1.  Marshall  p.  Wilder,  of  Dorchester;  Charles  G.  Davis,  of  Plymouth;  Na- 
than Durfee,  of  Fall  River;  John  Brooks,  of  Princeton ;  Henry  Colt,  of  Pittsflekl ;  William 
S.  Southworth,  of  Lowell;  Charles  C.  Sewall,  of  Medfleld;  Paoli  Lathrop,  of  South  Had- 
ley;  Phiueas  Stedman,  of  Chicopee;  Allen  W.  Dodge,  of  Hamilton;  George  Marston,  of 
Barnstable;  William  B.  Washburn,  of  Greenfield;  Henry  L.  Whiting,  of  Tisbury;  John 
B.  King,  of  Nantucket,  their  associates  and  successors,  are  hereby  constituted  a  body  cor- 
porate, by  the  name  of  *[the  Trustees  of]  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  the 
leading  object  of  which  shall  be,  without  excluding  other  scientific  and  classical  studies, 
and  including  military  tactics,  to  teach  such  branches  of  learning  as  are  related  ti.  agri- 
culture and  the  mechanic  ai'ts,  in  order  to  promote  the  liberal  and  practical  education  of 
the  industrial  classes  in  the  several  pursiiits  and  professions  of  life ;  to  be  located  as  here- 
inafter provided ;  and  they  and  their  successors,  and  such  as  shall  be  duly  elected  mem- 
bers of  said  corporation,  shall  be  and  remain  a  body  corporate  by  that  name  forever. 
And  for  the  orderly  conducting  of  the  business  of  said  corporation,  the  said  trustees  shall 
have  power  and  authority  from  time  to  time,  as  occasion  may  require,  to  elect  a  president, 
vice-president,  secretary  and  treasurer,  and  such  other  ofticers  of  said  corporation  as  may 
be  found  necessary,  and  to  declare  the  duties  and  tenures  of  their  respective  oflices; 
t[and  also  to  i-emove  any  trustee  from  the  same  corporation,  when,  in  their  judgment,  he 
shall  be  rendered  incapable,  by  age,  or  otherwise,  of  discharging  the  duties  of  his  oftice, 
or  shall  neglect  or  refuse  to  perform  the  same;  and,  whenever  vacancies  shall  occur  in 
the  board  of  trustees,  the  legislature  shall  fill  the  same]  :  j)t'ovuled,  nevertheless,  that  the 
number  of  members  shall  never  be  greater  than  fourteen,  exclusive  of  the  governor  of 
the  Commonwealth,  the  secretary  of  the  board  of  education,  the  secretary  of  the  board  of 
agriculture,  and  the  president  of  the  faculty,  each  of  whom  shall  be,  ex  officio,  a  member 
of  said  corporation. 
*[1.    Amended  by  Chap.  223,  Sec.  7,  Acts  of  1864. 

The  corporate  name  of  "The  Trustees  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College"  shall 
hereafter  be  "The  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College."' 

\[2.    Amended  by  Chap.  50,  Resolves  of  1884. 

*  *  *  the  power  of  appointment  of  members  of  said  board  of  trustees,  and  the  powers 
of  removal  defined  in  section  one  of  chapter  two  hundred  and  twenty,  of  the  acts  of 
eighteen  hundred  and  sixty -three,  shall  he  hereafter  exercised  by  the  governor  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  council,  instead  of  saiil  board ;  and  said  board  during  the  cur. 


41 

Hon.  John  Brooks  of  Princeton  was  a  farmer,  enthusiastic  in  his' 
calling,  who  li'ad  long  been  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture. 
He  died  before  the  college  was  organized.  Paoli  LathVop  of  South' 
Hadley,  was  also  a  successful  farmer  who  died  in  1872.  Allen  W. 
Dodge  of  Hamilton,  who  died  in  1878,  was  long  connected  officially 
with  the  P^ssex  societv,  and  was    treasurer    of   the    cbuntv:      Revl 


rent  year  shall,  by  lot,  divide  the  elected  members  thereof  into  seven  classes  of  two  mem- 
bers each,  of  whom  one  class  shall  vacate  their  office  January  first,  eighteen  hundred  and 
eighty-five,  and  one  class  on  the  first  day  of  January  in  each  year  thereafter;  and  such 
action  shall  be  certified  by  the  board  to  the  governor  and  council ;  and  appointments  to  fill 
the  vacancies  so  created  shall  be  made  for  the  term  of  seven  years. 

8ec.  2.  The  said  corporation  shall  have  full  power  and  authority  to  determine  at  what 
times  and  places  their  meetings  shall  be  holden,  and  the  manner  of  notifying  the  trustees 
to  convene  at  such  meetings ;  and  also,  from  time  to  time,  to  elect  a  president  of  said  col- 
lege, and  such  professors,  tutors,  instructors  and  other  officers  of  said  college  as  they 
shall  judge  most  for  the  interest  thereof,  and  to  determine  the.  duties,  salaries,  emolu- 
ments, responsibilities  and  tenures  of  their  several  offices. 

And  the  said  corporation  are  further  empowered  to  purchase  or  erect,  and  keep  in  re- 
pair, such  houses  and  other  buildings  as  they  shall  judge  necessary  for  the  said  college; 
and  also,  to  make  and  ordain  as  occasion  may  require,  reasonable  rules,  orders  and  by- 
laws not  repugnant  to  the  constitution  and  laws  of  this  Commonwealth,  with  reasonable 
penalties,  for  the  good  government  of  the  said  c.illege  and  for  the  regulation  of  their  own 
body,  and  also  to  determine  and  regulate  the  course  of  instruction  in  said  college,  and  to 
confer  such  appropriate  degrees  as  they  may  determine  and  prescribe  :  provided,  never- 
theless, that  no  corporate  business  shall  be  transacted  at  any  meeting  unless  one-half,  at 
least,  of  the  trustees  are  present. 

Sec.  3.  The  said  corporation  may  have  a  common  seal,  which  they  may  alter  or  renew 
at  their  pleasure,  and  all  deeds  sealed  with  the  seal  of  said  corporation,  and  signed  by 
their  order,  shall,  when  made  in  their  corporate  name,  be  considered  in  law  as  the  deeds 
of  said  corporation;  and  said  corporation  may  sue  and  be  sued  in  all  actions,  real,  per- 
sonal or  mixed,  and  may  prosecute  the  same  to  final  judgment  and  execution,  by  the  name 
of  the  Trustees  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College ;  and  said  corporation  shall  be 
capable  of  taking  and  holding  in  fee  simple,  or  any  less  estate,  by  gift,  grant,  bequest,  de- 
vise, or  otherwise,  any  lands,  tenements,  or  other  estate,  real  or  personal :  provided,  that 
the  clear  annual  income  of  the  same  shall  not  exceed  thirty  thousand  dollars. 

Sec.  4.  The  clear  rents  and  profits  of  all  the  estate,  real  and  personal,  of  which  the 
said  corporation  shall  be  seized  and  possessed,  shall  be  appropriated  to  the  uses  of  said 
college  in  such  manner  as  shall  most  efl'ectually  promote  the  objects  declared  in  the  first 
section  of  this  act,  and  as  may  be  reconnnended  from  time  to  time  by  the  said  corpora- 
tion, they  conforming  to  the  will  of  any  donor  or  donors,  in  the  application  of  any  estate 
which  may  be  given,  devised  or  bequeathed,  for  any  particular  object  connected  with  the 
college. 

Sec.  .5.    The  legislature  of  this  Commonwealth  may  grant  any  further  powers  to,  or 

alter,  limit,  annul  or  restrain,  any  of  the  powers  vested  by  this  act  in  the  said  corporalion, 

as  shall  be  found  necessary  to  promote  the  best  interests  of  the  said  college ;  and  more 

especially  may  appoint  and  establish  overseers  or  visitors  of  the  said  college,  with  all 

necessaiy  powers  for  the  better  aid,  preservation  and  government  thereof.    *[The  said 

corporation  shall  make  an  annual  report  of  its  condition,  financial  and  othenvise,  to  the 

legislature  at  tne  commencemf.-nt  of  its  session].  '  • 

*[7.    Amended  by  Chap.  378,  Acts  of  J 871. 

"  The  college  shall  furnish  to  the  governor  and  council  a  copy  of  the  annual  report  of  its 
operations." 

Sec.  6.    The  board  of  trustees  shall  determine  the  location  of  said  college  in  some  suit- 
able place  within  the  limits  of  this  Commonwealth,  and  shall  pur(;hase,  or  obtain,  by  gift, 
grant,  or  otherwise,  in  connection  therewith,  a  tract  of  land  containing  at  least  one  hun- 
6 


42 

Charles  C.  Sewall  was  also  a  farmer.  Hon.  George  Marstpn,  Dis- 
trict Attorney  of  the  South  Eastern  District,  and  afterwards  Attor- 
ney General,  took  great  interest  in  the  college.  He  resigned  in  1878, 
and  has  since  deceased.  Dr.  Nathan  Durfee  was  an  extensive  far- 
mer, and  from  1864  to  1876  treasurer  of  the  college.  All  these  and 
the  lamented  Governor  Andrew,  out  of  the  original  board  of  trus- 
tees, are  no  longer  among  the  living.  Henry  Colt  of  Pittsfield,  a 
manufacturer,  and  Phineas  Stedman  of  Chicopee,  an  enterprising 
farmer,  are  the  only  surviving  members  who  remain  upon  the  board, 
whilst  the  terms  of  Charles  G.  Davis  of  Plymouth,  and  Prof.  Henry 
L.  Whiting  have  expired  by  limitation  of  law  under  the  Resolve  of 
1884.  DC  the  other  original  members  Mr.  Southworth  of  Lowell  re- 
signed in  1864,  and  has  since  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Hon.  Hen- 
ry F.  French.  Gov.  Wm.  B.  Washburn  resigned  in  1878,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Hon.  James  S.  Grinnell  of  Greenfield.  Dr.  John  B. 
King  never  accepted  the  trust,  and  is  still  living  at  Nantucket. 
Charles  L.  Flint  resigned  in  1880,  and  was  followed  by  Hon.  John 
E.  Russell,  as  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture. 

drert  acres,  to  l)e  used  as  an  experimental  farm,  or  otherwise,  so  as  best  to  promote  the 
objects  of  the  institution;  and  in  establishing  the  by-laws  and  regulations  of  said  college, 
they  shall  make  such  provision  for  themanual  labor  of  the  students  on  said  farm  as  thej^ 
may  deem  just  and  reasonable.  The  location,  plan  of  organization,  government  and 
course  of  study  prescribed  for  the  college  shall  be  subject  to  the  approval  of  the*[legisla- 
ture] . 
*[1.    Amended  by  Cliaj)-  226\  Sec.  2,  Acts  of  1864. 

"  governor  and  council." 

8ec.  7.  One-tenth  pait  of  all  tlie  moneys  which  may  be  received  by  the  state  treasurer 
from  the  sale  of  land-scrip,  l)y  virtue  of  the  provisions  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirtieth 
chapter  of  the  acts  of  the  thirty-seventh  congress,  at  the  second  session  thereof,  approved 
July  second,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  laws  of  this  Commonwealtli, 
shall  be  paid  to  said  college,  and  appropriated  towards  the  purchase  of  said  site  or  farm; 
provided,  nevertheless,  that  the  said  college  shall  first  secure  by  valid  subscriptions  or 
otherwise,  the  further  sum  of  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  for  the  purpose  of  erecting 
suitable  buildings  tliereon ;  and  unon  satisfactory  evidence  that  this  proviso  has  been 
complied  with,  the  governor  is  authorized,  from  time  to  time,  to  draw  his  warrants  there- 
for. 

Sec.  8.  When  the  said  college  shall  have  been  duly  organized,  located  and  established, 
as  and  for  the  purposes  specified  in  this  act,  there  shall  be  appropriated  and  paid  to  its 
treasurer  each  year,  pn  the  waiTant  of  the  governor,  two-thirds  of  tlie  annual  interest  or 
income,  which  may  be  received  from  the  fund  created  under  and  by  virtue  of  the  act  of 
congress  named  in  the  seventh  section  of  this  act,  and  the  laws  of  this  Commonwealth, 
accepting  the  provisions  thereof,  and  relating  to  the  same. 

Sec.  5).  In  the  event  of  a  dissolution  of  said  corporation,  l)y  its  voluntary  act  at  any 
time,  the  real  and  personal  property  belonging  to  the  corporation  shall  revert  and  belong- 
to  the  Commonwealth,  to  be  held  by  the  same,  and  be  disposetl  of  as  it  may  see  fit  in  the 
advancement  of  education  in  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts.  Tlie  legislature  shall 
have  authority  at  any  time  to  withhold  the  portion  of  the  interest  or  income  from  said 
fund  provided  in  this  act,  whenever  the  corporation  shall  cease  or  fail  to  maintain  a  col- 
lege withiu  the  provisions  and  spirit  of  this  act  and  the  before-mentioned  act  of  congress, 
or  for  anv  cause  which  they  deem  sufficient. 

Approved  April  29,  1863. 


43 

I  have  thus  sketched  the  birtli  of  the  college,  aud  tlie  labors  of 
parturition.  Like  all  children,  it  must  now  be  tried  by  the  ills  and 
chances  that  flesh  is  heir  to;  its  period  of  dentition,  and  want  of 
noui'ishment,  by  perils  nearly  unto  death,  trials  by  fire,  trials  by 
poverty,  threats  of  abandonment,  orphanage,  and  of  baby  farming. 

The  corporation  was  organized  November  18,  1863,  with  his  Ex- 
cellency Jolin  A.  Andrew  as  President,  Allen  W.  Dodge  as  Vice- 
President,  and  Charles  L.  Flint  Secretary.  The  magnanimity  of 
Gov.  Andrew  is  shown  from  the  fact  that  after  the  report  of  the 
legislative  committee  he  not  only  yielded  all  opposition,  but  entered 
into  a  most  zealous  cooperation  with  the  trustees  in  carrying  out  the 
work  assigned  them.  In  the  midst  of  duties  and  cares  before  unex- 
ampled, during  the  anxieties  and  turmoils  of  a  great  civil  war,  he 
found  time  to  attend  their  meetings  and  joined  with  their  executive 
committee,  consisting  of  Messrs.  French,  Colt  and  Davis,  in  visiting 
Amherst  in  June,  1864  to  examine  their  location. 

On  the  17th  of  March,  1864,  a  letter  was  received  from  Dr. 
Thomas  Hill,  President  of  Harvard  College,  making  suggestions  in 
favor  of  the  Bussey  estate,  but  it  was  know^i  to  the  trustees  that  the 
views  of  Dr.  Hill  and  Prof.  Agassiz  were  not  generally  supported  at 
Cambridge.  In  April  and  early  in  May  the  trustees  viewed  the  ad- 
joining premises  of  Mr.  Phineas  Stedman,  and  of  Chester  W.  Cha- 
pin  near  Springfield,  the  Kemp  farm  in  West  Springfield  and  the 
Luddington  farm  ;  in  Northampton,  the  farm  of  Dr.  Denniston  ;  the 
Fairbanks  farm  ;  that  of  Mr.  Clark,  near  Florence  :  the  Day  farm, 
and  that  of  Dr.  Prince,  near  the  Northampton  Lunatic  Hospital,  of 
which  Dr.  Prince  was  then  superintendent ;  the  farms  of  Cowles, 
Cobb  and  others,  here  in  Amherst;  at  Lexington,  the  farm  of  Mrs. 
Cary  ;  and  at  West  Newton,  the  Winchester  farm  then  owned  by  T. 
P.  Chandler.  But  the  towns  of  Lexington,  Springfield,  Northampton 
and  Amherst  only,  "  offered  to  secure  by  valid  subscription  or  other- 
wise, the  sum  of  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  for  tlie  purpose  of 
erecting  suitable  buildings  thereon."  On  the  25th  of  April  the 
trustees  decided  to  locate  in  Amherst  by  a  vote  of 
For  Amherst  8, 
Springfield  3, 
Lexington  1, 
Northampton  1. 

At  this  time  the  trustees  were  further  instructed  bv  an  elaborate 


44 

report  of  their  secretary  upon  the  agricultural  schools  of  Europe, 
which  he  had  visited  in  the  summer  of  1863.* 

AL  a  meeting  on  the  4th  of  May,  1864,  Hon.  Henry  F.  French, 
then  of  Cambridge,  became  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees,  was 
at  once  elected  vice-president,  and  soon  after  appointed  by  the  gov- 
ernor and  council,- agent  of  the  state  to  sell  the  land  scrip,  which  no 
state  could  locate  in  another  state  or  territory.  Mr.  French  came  to 
the  board  with  the  reputation  of  one  largely  interested  in  farming 
pursuits,  who  had  published  a  book  on  ''Drainage,"  been  a  prolific 
contributor  to  agricultural  journals  and  to  the  agricultural  report  at 
Washington,  was  a  vice-president  of  the  United  States  Agricultural 
Society,  and  had  recently  become  widely  known  in  Massachusetts  by 
his- familiar  and  enthusiastic  lectures  for  two  years  before  the  Legis- 
lative Agricultural  Society,  on  drainage,  plows  and  plowing,  and  the 
husbandry  of  England,  which  he  had  recently  visited.  Mr.  French 
entered  upon  his  duties  as  agent  with  vigor,  but  his  work  was  an  em- 
barrassing one.  So  much  land  scrip  was  thrown  upon  the  market  at 
once  by  the  ditTerent  states,  that  its  market  value  was  greatly  de- 
creased, so  that  he  was  able  to  realize  fifty  cents  an  acre  only,  whilst 
it  is  said  that  Mr.  Cornell,  a  rich  capitalist,  generously  took  the  New 
York  scrip  and  reserved  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  college,  whilst  he 
could  realize  at  his  leisure. f  Mr.  French  was  criticised  in  some 
quarters  for  his  acts  in  this  regard,  but  I  know  he  was  much  troub- 
led, took  the  best  advice,  and  did  the  best  he  could  do. 

On  the  2nd  of  November,  1864,  he  was  elected  president  of  the 
college,  by  a  vote  of  eight  out  of  twelve.  There  was  in  fact,  at  the 
time,  no  other  candidate  before  the  board,  who  was  desirous  of  an 
election,  but  the  vote  indicated  doubts  of  the  propriety  or  expediency 
of  his  election,  as  there  were  two  blank  votes,  and  one  for  Hon.  Geo. 
B.  Loring,  and  one  for  Chas.  L.  Flint,  neither  of  whom  desired  the 
position. 

On  the  1st  of  February,  1865,  President  French,  Hon.  Joseph 
White,  then  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  ex-officio 
trustee  of  the  college,  and  Mr.  Henry  L.  Whiting,  who  was  a  pro- 
fessional engineer  of  the  Coast  Survey,  and  now  engaged  in  a  topo- 
graphical survey  of  the  state,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  consid- 

*See  Massaclmsetts  Agricultural  Report  for  year  18(S. 

t  New  York  was  entitled  to  about  a  million  of  acres  under  the  law,  for  which  more 
than  f.'i.OOO.OOO  has  been  received,  and  much  more  wpuld  have  been  realized,  had  Mr.  Cor- 
nell been  able  to  carry  out  his  own  projects. 


45 

er  looatioD  and  plan  of  buildings,  a  plan  of  organization  and  course 
of  study.  There  was  a  delay  in  the  report  of  the  committee,  and  om 
the  3rd  of  August,  six  months  after,  Wm.  B.  Washburn,  afterwards- 
governor,  and  Henry  F.  Hills  of  Amherst,  were  added  to  the  com- 
mittee. 

On  the  13th  of  October,  1865,  a  special  meeting  was  held  at  the 
request  of  Davis,  Durfee,  Lathrop  and  Stedman,  when  Davis  offered 
a  vote  that  the  committee  be  instructed  to  locate  the  college  buildings 
on  the  plain  near  the  center  of  the  farm  upon  what  is  known  as 
chestnut  tree  ridge.  The  five  members  of  the  committee  with  Mr, 
Colt  voted  in  the  negative,  and  the  other  six  trustees  present  voted 
in  the  affirmative.  It  was  understood  at  the  time  that  several  of 
these  gentlemen  having  discovered  that  the  president  was  persistent 
in  his  views,  voted  with  him  to  avoid  a  break  upon  the  very  first 
question  which  came  before  them.  The  other  trustees  thought  the 
question  important,  and  they  might  well  be  condemned  by  good  farm- 
ers in  placing  buildings,  farm  buildings  and  all,  on  a  hill  in  the  south- 
east corner  of  a  large  farm.  Up  to  this  time  Col.  Wilder  was  pre- 
vented by  ill  health  from  attending  the  meetings  of  the  board.  No- 
vember 1,  1865  the  trustees  voted  to  employ  an  architect  to  report 
as  to  location,  and  Dec.  27,  Mr.  Vaux,  the  architect,  made  a  report, 
and  the  meeting  was  adjourned  to  Jan.  2,  1866,  when  Mr.  Davis 
renewed  his  motion.  The  President  was  so  persistent  in  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  vote  that  he  would  not  put  the  question  ;  when  after  several 
hours  of  discussion  Mr.  Davis  put  the  vote  himself,  which  was  car- 
ried nine  to  six,  Messrs.  Hills  and  Whiting  of  the  committee  having 
changed  their  votes,  and  being  no  longer  willing  to  sustain  the  Presi- 
dent. President  French  refused  to  consider  this  vote  decisive,  and, 
without  authority,  commenced  excavations  in  the  hill  for  building. 
The  location  was  further  discussed  August  1st,  and  again  on  the  16th, 
when  the  motion  was  once  more  carried.  This  was  the  second  filial 
vote.  Mr.  French  still  refusing  to  '^  commend  the  ingredients  of  the 
poisoned  chalice  to  his  own  lips,"  called  a  special  meeting  to  let 
Amherst  people  present  their  views  as  to  location  of  buildings,  at 
which  Hon.  Edward  Dickinson,  Treasurer  of  Amherst  College,  came 
down  to  Boston  and  lectured  us  like  children,  ''  unpacked  his  heart 
with  words,  and  fell  to  scolding."  Thereupon  Prof.  Clark  presented 
a  remonstrance  of  over  three  hundred  citizens  of  Amherst  against 
interference  with  the  discretion  or  action  of  the  trustees.  This  meet- 
ing was  held  Sept.  19,  1866. 


46 

Here  closeth  the  dentition  period  of  our  college,  before  it  had 
begun  to  walk  alone,  in  which  the  stomach  as  well  as  the  head  was 
largely  disturbed.  Our  first  President  threw  up  his  commission  and 
took  *' French  leave"!*  During  his  presidency,  in  May,  1865,  the 
legislature  authorized  the  town  of  Amherst  to  raise  $50,000  by 
taxation  for  the  college,  and  in  the  same  month  granted  $10,000  to 
aid  in  the  establishment  of  the  college. 

Prof.  Paul  A.  Chadbourne  was  elected  President  Nov.  7,  1866,  but 
by  reason  of  ill  health,  was  obliged  to  resign  the  June  following. 
The  course  of  study  which  he  marked  out  has  been  substantially  fol- 
lowed ever  since.  Prof.  Chadbourne  was  a  wonderful  man,  as  ver- 
satile as  any  one  we  can  name  ;  a  scholar,  a  philosopher,  a  scientist, 
a  Christian  minister,  and  a  teacher,  he  possessed  qualities  which  are 
rarely  combined  in  one  man  ;  the  shrewdness  and  economics  of  a 
Yankee,  practical  familiarity  with  details,  decision  of  character, 
great  administrative  power,  the  faculty  of  separating  what  is  practi- 
cal from  what  is  merely  theoretical,  great  activity  and  energy,  united 
with  method  and  system.  He  was  therefore  the  man  of  all  others 
for  the  college  during  its  formative  period.  He  entered  upon  his 
duties  with  every  encouragement.  The  Governor  and  Council  had 
in  September,  1864  approved  the  location.  The  legislature  had  fur- 
ther approved  it  by  granting  power  to  the  town  of  Amherst  to  raise 
$50,000  by  taxation  for  college  buildings,  and  by  the  grant  of  $10,- 
000,  and  the  citizens  of  Amherst  had  thus  also  shown  their  continued 
interest  in  the  college,  though  delay  had  been  occasioned  by  the  suit 
brought  by  a  few  of  its  citizens  to  dispute  the  constitutionality  of  the 
Act.  A  citizen  of  an  adjoining  town  had  been  unanimously  chosen 
superintendent  of  the  farm,  and  instructor  in  agriculture.  I  refer  to 
Hon.  Levi  Stockbridge,  who  has  ever  since  been  so  faithful,  respect- 
ed and  popular  an  officer  of  the  college.  President  Chadbourne  had 
also  laid  his  plans  for  a  small  body  of  professors,  and  commenced 
the  south  dormitory,  laboratory  and  south  boarding  house,  which 
were  completed  in  1867.  Dr.  Durfee,  Leonard  M.  and  Henry  F. 
Hills  had  given  $20,000  for  the  establishment  of    a  plant  house  and 


*Meanwhile  May  26,  1866,  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  which  was  oue  of  tlie  first  Boards  of 
Agriculture  created  in  any  state,  was  constituted  a  board  of  overseers  "with  powers  and 
duties  to  be  defined  and  fixed  by  the  governor  and  council,"  but  "no  powers  granted  tg 
control  tlie  action  of  the  trustees  of  said  college,  or  to  negative  their  powers  and  duties." 
The  board  was  also  "  authorized  to  locate  the  state  agricultural  cabinet  and  library,  and  to 
hold  its  meetings  in  said  college,"  and  the  president  of  the  college  was  constituted  a  mem- 
ber ex  officio  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture.  [Chap.  263,  Acts  of  1866. 


47 

botanic  garden,  and  all  was  promise  when  the  college  met  with  this 
first  great  loss. 

On  the  7th  of  August,  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  college.  Prof. 
Clark  was  elected  president,  Henry  H.  Goodell  professor  of  modern 
languages,  and  Ebenezer  S.  Snell  of  mathematics.  On  the  2d  of  Octo- 
ber following,  the  college  was  opened  to  students,  of  whom  forty-seven 
were  ndinitted  before  the  close  of  the  term.  The  college  was  at  last  fairly 
launched,  and  the  prayers  of  the  trustees,  who  since  their  incorpora- 
tion had  held  thirty-five  meetings  on  as  many  days,  were  about  to  be 
answered.  President  Clark  was  peculiarly  fitted  after  these  great 
discouragements,  by  his  energy,  enthusiasm  and  hopefulness,  to 
encouiage  his  fellow  laborers,  and  to  excite  enthusiasm  in  others. 
Me  was  the  man  of  all  others  to  start  a  college,  if  not  to  run  one.  I 
shall  not  dwell  upon  his  character  or  his  work,  inasmuch  as  at  the 
last  dinner  of  the  alumni  a  year  ago  a  full  and  eloquent  eulogy  was 
presented  by  President  Goodell,  which  is  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  heard  or  read  it ;  as  also  the  tribute  to  his  memory  in 
the  last  report  of  the  college.  During  his  administration  in  1867  the 
Washington  Irving  Literary  Society  was  founded.  Mr.  Wilder  gave 
1300  specimens  of  choice  plants  to  the  plant  house.  In  1868  the 
Legislature  authorized  the  governor  to  issue  arms  and  equipments 
to  ihe  college,  and  Congress  had  passed  the  act  annexed.* 

In  1868  the  Legislature  allowed  $50,000  for  the  further  erection  of 
buildings,  in  1868  President  Clark  also  procured  a  meeting  of  the 
New  England  Agricultural  Society  for  a  trial  of  plows  on  the  farm, 
and  a  country  meeting  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  ;  the  north 
dormitory,  north  boarding  house,  botanic  museum  and  Durfee  plant 
house  were  completed.  The  same  year  Charles  A.  Goessmann,  the 
modest,  industrious,  learned  and  faithful  professor  of  chemistry  was 


♦OFFICERS  DETAILED  FOR  COLLEGES. 
Sec.  1225.  The  President  may,  upon  the  application  of  any  establislied  college  or  uni. 
versity  within  the  United  States,  having  capacity  to  educate,  at  the  same  time,  not  less 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  male  students,  detail  an  officer  of  the  Army  to  act  as  president, 
superintendent,  or  professor  thereof;  but  the  number  of  olficers  so  detailed  shall  not 
exceed  thirty  at  any  time,  and  they  shall  be  apportioned  throughout  tlie  United  States,  as 
nearly  as  may  be  practicable,  according  to  population.  Oflicers  so  detailed  shall  be  gov 
erned  by  general  rules  prescribed  from  time  to  time  by  the  President.  The  Secretary  of 
War  is  authorized  to  issue  at  his  discretion  and  under  proper  regulations  to  be  prescribed 
by  him,  out  of  any  small  arms  orpieces  of  field  artillery  belonging  to  the  Government  and 
which  can  be  spared  for  that  purpose,  such  number  of  the  same  as  may  appear  to  be 
required  for  military  instruction  and  practice  by  the  students  of  anj'  college  or  university 
under  the  provisions  of  this  section;  and  the  Secretary  shall  require  a  bond  in  each  case, 
in  double  the  value  of  the  property,  for  the  care  and  safe  keeping  thereof,  aud  for  the 
return  of  the  same  when  required. 


48 

appointed,  and  Samuel  F.  Miller  was  elected  professor  of  mathemat- 
ics, physics,  and  civil  engineering.  He  died  much  lamented,  Oct. 
28,  1870.  In  1869,  $50,000  was  appropriated  by  the  state  for  the 
further  erection  of  buildings.  Henry  E.  Alvord,  U.  S.  Army,  now 
professor  of  agriculture,  was  detailed  for  duty  as  professor  of  mili- 
tary science  and  tactics  ;  the  college  hall,  farm  house  and  barns  were 
built;  Hon.  William  Knowlton,  of  Upton,  afterwards  in  1870  elected 
trustee,  and  who  was  otherwise  a  frequent  donor  to  the  college,  and 
who  died  last  year,  gaye  $2000  for  the  purchase  of  the  herbarium 
collected  by  W.  W.  Denslow  ;  and  in  the  same  year  the  first  Index,  a 
college  paper,  was  issued.  In  1870  the  state  further  appropriated 
$25,000  for  the  payment  of  debts.  In  1870  also  the  first  serious 
attack  upon  the  integrity  of  the  college,  as  a  state  college,  was  made 
by  the  passage  of  a  resolve  ''That  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  be  directed 
to  devise  a  plan,  if  practicable,  by  which  the  college  may,  without 
expense  to  the  Commonwealth,  be  recognized  as  an  independent 
institution  in  analogy  with  other  colleges  in  the  Commonwealth,  and 
that  they  inquire  whether  the  term  of  study  in  said  college  should  not 
be  reduced,  and  report  to  the  next  General  Court."  Rev.  Henry  W. 
Parker  was  chosen  professor  of  mental,  moral  and  social  science,  and 
college  preacher.  In  1871  a  legislative  resolve  allowed  $50,000  for  pay- 
ment of  debts  and  current  expenses  ;  added  $141,535.35  to  the  perpet- 
ual fund  of  the  college  ;  and  ordered  10,000  extra  copies  of  the  college 
report  to  be  printed.  The  first  class  numbering  27  was  graduated  this 
year  on  the  19th  of  July,  and  two  days  after,  the  Agricultural  College 
crew,  "  the  Aggies  "  won  in  the  intercollegiate  regatta  in  16  min.  46  1-2 
sec.  Selim  H.  Peabody  was  elected  professor  of  mathematics,  phys- 
ics, and  civil  engineering.  Henry  J.  Clark  was  elected  professor  of 
comparative  anatomy  and  veterinary  science,  and  died  July  1,  1873. 
Miss  Mary  Robinson  presented  $1000  for  the  endowment  of  a  schol- 
arship. In  1872  Prof.  Stockbridge  was  elected  full  professor  of 
agriculture.  Abner  H.  Merrill.  U.  S.  A.,  was  detailed  professor  of 
military  science  and  tactics  in  place  of  Prof.  Alvord.  In  1873  Noah 
Cressy  was  elected  professor  of  veterinary  science.  Isaac  D.  Farns- 
worth  donated  rhetorical  prizes.  Hon.  William  Claflin  gave  an  agri- 
cultural prize  fund,  known  as  the  Grinnell  agricultural  prizes.  The 
Hills  botanical  prizes,  and  Prof.  Peabody's  entomological  prize,  were 
given.  In  1874  the  legislature  granted  $10,000.  Prof.  Peabody 
resigned.     Samuel  T.  Maynard  was  elected  gardener  and  assistant 


49 

professor  of  horticulture,  and  William  B.  Graves  professor  of  math- 
ematics, physics,  and  civil  engineering.  In  1874  also,  three  years 
after  the  first  class  was  graduated,  the  "  Associate  Alumni  of  the 
Massachusetts  Agricultural  College"  were  organized,  an  early  and 
striking  proof  of  the  interest  maintained  in  the  colh  ge  by  its  gradu- 
ates, which  from  your  numbers  here  to-day  you  bid  fair  to  retain.  In 
1875,  the  college  entered  into  an  agreement  to  represent  the  agricultu- 
ral department  of  Boston  Universiiy.  Charles  A.  L.  Totten  was 
detailed  as  professor  of  military  science  and  tactics,  and  Prof,  diaries 
S.  Sargent  made  a  gift  of  trees,  shrubs  and  herbaceous  plants. 

In  April,  1876,  Dr.  Nathan  Durfee,  treasurer,  died  and  the  state 
appropriated  $5000  for  current  expenses.  Prof.  Cressy  resigned.  A 
military  prize  and  diploma  were  first  given  by  Prof .  Totten.  In  1877, 
the  state  appropriated  $5000,  one-iialf  for  payment  of  maiiual  labor 
by  students  from  within  the  state.  Hon.  William  Knowlton  built  a 
new  green-house. 

On  the  'iOth  of  May,  1876,  President  Clark  left  the  country  to 
organize  an  agricultural  college  in  Japan,  leaving  Prof.  Stockbridge 
in  charge  ;  but  returned  the  next  year,  and  resumed  his  duties  to 
which  he  devoted  himself  until  May  I,  1879,  when  he  resigned. 

In  1879,  the  legislature  granted  So 2, 000  to  pay  the  indebted- 
ness of  the  college,  and  provided  that  ''  the  expenses  of  the 
institution  shall  be  kept  within  the  income  to  which  it  is  legally 
entitled,  and  the  board  of  trustees  shall  be  personally  liable  for  any 
debt  contracted  for  any  purpose  in  exces§  of  the  annual  income  of 
the  college,  or  for  the  payment  of  which  money  has  not  been  previ- 
ously provided."  The  state  perpetual  fund  of  the  college  was  $350,- 
000.  The  trustees  offered  in  1880,  one  hundred  and  fifty  free  schol- 
arships, and  Whiting  Street,  Esq  made  a  beque-t  of  $1000  to  the 
general  funds  of  the  college.  Prof.  Levi  Stockbridge  gave  $1000 
for  experimental  purposes.  Chas.  A.  Morris,  U.  S.  A.  was  detailed 
as  professor  of  military  science  and  tactics. 

Charles  L.  Flint,  who  had  been  since  the  organization  of  the  Board 
of  Agriculture  in  1852,  secretary  of  that  board,  and  since  the  organi- 
zation of  the  college,  clerk  of  the  corporation,  as  well  as  ex-officio 
trustee,  to  whom  the  college  has  ever  been  largely  indebted  for  advice 
and  services,  and  who  has  shown  his  interest  in  the  college  by  a  sub- 
scription of  $1000  towards  a  library  fund,  consented  to  temporarily 
fill  the  breach  occasioned  by  the  resignation  of  President  Clark,  and 
held  oflfice  till  March,  1880.      During  his  term  of  oflfice.  Prof.  Parker 


50 

resigned,  and  Prof.  Maynard  was  elected  full  professor  of  botany  and 
horticulture.  Prof.  Stockbridge  was  elected  president  in  April.  In 
January,  1882,  President  Chadbpurne's  health  had  so  far  improved, 
that  Mr.  Stockbridge  resigned,  and  President  Chadbourne  at  ouce 
resumed  the  office.  During  President  Stockbridge's  term.  Prof. 
Graves  resigned  in  Aug.,  1881  ;  Charles  L.  Harrington  was  appointed 
professor  of  mathematics,  physics,  and  civil  engineering,  and  \'ictor 
H.  Bridguian  was  detailed  as  military  professor.  In  1882,  under  the 
presidency  of  Mr.  Ciiadbourne,  $9000  was  appropriated  foi-  a  drill 
hall  and  repairs.  An  act  was  passed  May  12th  establishing  the 
Massachusetts  State  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  Prof.  Har- 
rington resigned,  and  Austin  B.  Bassett  was  elected  professor  in  his 
place.  In  Januaiy,  1883,  the  Durfee  plant  house  was  destroyed  by 
fire,  and  on  the  23d  of  February  the  college  met  with  the  final  loss  of 
President  Chadbourne  by  death.  Prof.  Goodell  acted  as  president 
until  September,  w^hen  James  C.  Greenough,  elected  in  July,  assumed 
the  duties  of  the  office.  Mr.  Greenough  had  not  consented 
to  become  a  candidate,  -but  was  elected  ))y  a  unanimous  vote,  and 
continued  president  until  September,  188G. 

In  June,  1883,  the  legislature  allowed  $10,000  annually  for  four  years 
(and  afterwards  annually),  and  established  eighty  free  scholar- 
ships, two  for  each  senatorial  district,  to  be  recommended  by  tiie 
senator  of  tiie  district.*  Manly  Miles  was  elected  professV>r  of  agri- 
culture, the  drill  hall  was  completed,  and  Leander  Wetherell  of  Bos- 
ton presented  1410  bound  volumes  to  the  lil)rary.  In  1884,  a  resolve 
allowed  $3r),000  for  the  erection  of  a  chapel  and  library  building,  for 
the  completion  of  the  president's  house,  and  for  the  repair  of  north 
colleo-e. 


^CONDITIONS  OF  AWARDING  FREE  SCHOLARSHIPS. 

(Resolves  of  1883.    Chap.  4fi). 

The  eighty  free  s(5holarships  ********************* 
to  be  given  by  appointment  to  persons  in  thit<  Commonwea^lth,  after  a  competitive  exami- 
nation, under  rules  prescribed  by  the  president  of  the  college,  at  such  time  and  place  as 
the  senator  then  in  office,  from  each  district,  shall  designate;  and  the  said  scholarships 
shall  be  assigned  equally  to  each  senatorial  district;  but  if  there  shall  be  less  than  two 
successful  applicants  for  scholarships  from  any  senatorial  district,  such  scholarships  may 
be  distributed  by  the  president  of  the  college  e(|ually  among  the  other  districts,  as  nearly 
as  possible;  but  no  applicant  shall  be  entitled  to  a  scholarship  unless  he  shall  pass  an 
examination  in  accordance  with  the  rules  to  be  established  as  hereinbefore  provided. 

Approvetl  Jan.  2,  1S83. 

Resolved,  That  there  shall  be  paid  annually  from  the  treasury  of  the  Commonwealth  to 
the  treasurer  of  the  Massachusetts  agricultural  college,  at  Amherst,  the  sum  of  ten  thous- 
and dollars,  to  enable  the  trustees  of  said  college  to  provide  for  the  students  of  said  insti- 


51 

In  1884,  Prof.  Hassett  resigned,  and  Clarence  D.Warner  was  elected 
in  his  [)lace.  Horace  E.  Stockbridge  was  elected  associate  professor  of 
chemistry.  On  the  4th  of  Febrnary,  1885,  the  sonth  dormitory  was 
destroyed  by  fire,  and  in  June  following,  $4e5,000  was  appropriated 
for  rebuilding  the  dormitory,  erecting  a  tower  on  the  chapel  and  pur- 
chasing scientific  apparatus.  Prof.  H.  E.  Stockbridge  resigned,  and 
Cliarles  Wellington  was  elected  associate  professor  in  his  stead. 
George  E.  Sage,  U.  S.  A.,  was  detailed  as  professor  of  military  sci- 
ence and  tactics.  Ex-President  French  died  Nov.  '29,  and  Ex-Pres- 
ident Clark  on  the  9th  of  March,  1886.  In  the  same  year  theHeiiry 
James  Clark  prize  of  natural  history  was  first  given  ;  Mr.  Wilder  })re- 
sented  several  hundred  volumes  to  the  library,  and  $7000  foi-  repnirs 
and  other  needs  of  the  college  was  granted  by  the  state. 

*Mr.  Greenough's  presidency  is  marked  by  the  changes  and  ad- 
ditions made  in  the  college  buildings.  Tiie  bonrding  house  built 
in  1867  was  remodeled,  repaired  and  painted  ;  the  interioi-  of  the 
original  chapel  building  remodeled  ;  the  original  noith  dormitory  ren- 
ovated, and  the  i)resident's  house  planned  and  built.  The  south 
dormitory  was  rebuilt  on  a  much  larger  scale,  with  accommodations 
for  the  agricultural  department,  at  a  cost  of  about  $38,000.  To 
President  Greenough  also,  the  college  is  indebted  for  his  valuable  serv- 
ices and  oversight,  in  the  erection  of  this  beautiful  stone  chapel  and  li- 
brary building,  constructed  of  stone  (from  a  granite  quarry  in  Pelham 
purchased  by  the  college  in  1867),  ])uilt  aiid  furnished  at  a  cost  of  a 
little  over  $31,000.  Mr.  Greenough  also  obtained  a  subscription  of 
between  seven  and  eight  thousand  dollars  for  a  permanent  library 
fund. 

At  the  period  of  the  college  commencement  in  June,  1886,  Henry 
H.  Goodell,  who  had  been  a  professor  in  the  college  since  the  simi- 
mer  of  1867,  and  prior  to  the  admission  of  its  first  class,  and  who 
had  also  held  various  other  positions  of  all  grades  up  to  that  of 
acting  president,  was  elected  president  of  the  college,  and  is  holding 
the  position  to  the  general  acceptance  and  gratification  of  the  trus- 
tees, the  faculty,  the  students,  and  the  comnmnity.     The  state  has 


tution  the  theoretical  and  practical  education  retiuired  by  its  charter  and  the  law  of  the 
United  States  relating  thereto. 

(Resolves  of  I«8(5.    Chap.  ;M). 
Resolved,    That  annually  the  scholarships  established  by  chapter  forty-six  of  the  Resolves 
of  the  year  eighteen  hundred  eighty-three  be  given  and  continued  in  accordance  with  the 
provisions  of  said  chapter. 

Approved  April  16,  18di6. 


52 

just  tipin'opriated  $7000  for  barn,  sheds,  ice-house,  concrete  side- 
walks, tire  apparatus,  and  heating  appliances  for  the  drill  hall; 
in  April  accepted  the  act  of  Congress  concerning  experiment  sta- 
tions, and  has  also  appropriated  $6500  for  a  laboratory  building  at 
the  Massachusetts  State  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  at  Am- 
herst. 

At  the  accession  of  President  Goodell,  Charles  Henry  Fernald  was 
elected  professor  of  comparative  anatomy  and  veterinary  science,  and 
Charles  Swan  Walker  professor  of  moral  and  social  science.  And 
Henry  E.  Alvord,  formerly  detailed  as  professor  of  military  science, 
returned  to  the  college  which  he  loved,  as  professor  of  agriculture. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  at  the  end  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  since 
the  passage  of  the  benelicent  law  we  celebrate,  with  its  author  on  our 
grounds,  whom  we  were  so  glad  to  welcome  yesterday,*  let  us  remem- 
ber that  it  is  not  quite  twenty  years  since  the  college  was  opened, 
but  we  have  time  enough  to  review  the  past,  to  ask  what  mistakes 
we  have  made,  what  trials  we  have  survived,  and  to  see  whether  we 
have  encouragement  for  the  future. 

One  crisis  of  the  college  was  in  1870,  when  an  attempt  was  made 
by  resolve,  to  disown  the  college,  to  renounce  and  discard  it  like  an 
abandoned  child  thrown  upon  its  own  resources.  There  is  a  law 
human  as  well  as  divine,  that  [)arents  shall  support  their  offspring  at 
least  during  helplessness.  Let  it  never  be  forgotten,  and  I  pray  you 
to  urge  the  consideration  always,  that  this  college  is  the  child  of  the 
state,  which  is  bound  by  the  highest  obligations  of  honor,  by  avow- 
als, before  all  the  world,  in  consideraiion  of  the 'gift  by  Congress  of 
390,000  acres  of  land,  to  •'  support  and  maintain  at  least  one  college 
where  the  leading  object  shall  be  *  *  to  teach  such  branches  of 
learning  as  are  related  to  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts."  This 
grant  was  made  on  a  condition^  and  the  state  accepted  the  act  with 
that  condition.  The  state  therefore  cannot  discard  the  child.  It 
has  agreed  to  ''  support  and  maintain"  it.  It  is  the  state's  college, 
"  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College."  The  land  is  the  property 
of  the  state.  The  trustees  are  merely  agents  of  the  state,  and  there- 
fore like  any  agents  entirely  subject  to  the  orders  of  their  principal. 
It  is  for  that  reason,  if  there  were  no  others,  that  the  State  Board  of 
Agriculture  are  properly  made  the  overseers  of  the  college;  for  this 
reason  the  state  very  properly  should  appoint  the  trustees,  limit  their 
powers,   and  render  them  liable    for   wilful  excess   of   expenditure. 

*Mr.  Morrill  was  called  by  telegram  to  Washington  by  the  severe  illness  of  his  son. 


53 

The  proposed  legislative  infanticide  was  averted,  and  the  child 
remained  alive  with  its  parents.  The  legislature  became  satisfied 
that  it  could  not  be  accomplished  honorably,  nor  legally. 

Notwithstanding  the  result  of  the  movement  above  described, 
again  in  1879,  and  1880,  an  attempt  encouraged  by  Gov.  Talbot  and 
recommended  by  Gov.  Long  was  made  to  annex  the  Agricultural 
College  to  another  college.  The  i-esolve  "  requested  Gov.  Talbot 
and  council  to  examine  the  affairs  of  the  college,  and  repoitsome  plan 
for  its  permanent  continuance  witli  its  i-elations  to  the  state  definitely 
fixed,  or  some  plan  for  its  discontinuance  ;  but  with  the  provision  in 
any  event,  that  its  finances  shall  from  this  time  be  finally  separated 
from  the  treasury  of 'the  Commonwealth."  This  meant  life,  '*"  perma- 
nent continuance,"  with  an  arranged  or  defined  stipend,  or  r.bandon- 
ment,  being  cut  off  with  a  shilling.  Gov.  Talbot's  council  were 
puzzled.  There  could  be  no  contract  or  arrangement  made  with  the 
college,  because  the  college  was  the  state's  own  minor  child,  and 
belonged  to  the  state.  I  am  informed  by  a  surviving  member  of  the 
council  that  no  report  was  ever  made,  aud  certainly  no  message,  nor 
report  upon  the  subject  appears,  in  the  Blue  Book.  Gov.  Long  in 
his  first  inaugural  message  in  1880,  speaks  of  what  is  recommended 
in  the  report  of  the  retiring  governor  and  council  as  follows  :  "  The 
course  which  is  recommended  in  the  report  of  the  retiring  governor 
and  council  is  its  union  with  Amherst  College,  if  that  can  be  effected, 
with  provisions,  of  course,  for  fulfilling  the  trusts  heretofore  involved 
in  the  acceptance  of  funds  from  the  town  of  Amherst  and  from  the 
national  government.  Such  a  union,  without  destroying  the  integ- 
rity of  this  institution,  would  certainly  separate  it  from  the  state 
treasury.  It  would  save  it  from  the  annual  attack  that  impairs  its 
steadiness  and  accomplishment.  It  would  graft  a  living  branch  upon 
a  strong  and  growing  college,  which,  adopting  this  new  and  inde- 
pendent department  of  prajctical  instruction,  would,  I  am  sure,  even 
though  with  the  same  income,  increase  its  efficiency,  and  enable  it 
still,  in  the  interest  of  agriculture  and  not  subordinate  to  any  other, 
to  better  achieve  the  worthy  purposes  of  its  foundation.  I  trust  you 
will  adopt  such  a  course — and  the  one  recommended  in  the  above- 
named  report  is  there  suggested  with  that  view — as  will  make  this 
institution  most  valuable  in  promoting  the  great  interest  for  which  it 
stands."  Gov.  Long  wanted  to  make  the  college  a  ''  living  branch" 
upon  another  college  ;  but  with  what  provisions  he  would  fulfil  the 
trust  involved  with  the  town  of  Amherst,  and  the  national  govern- 


54 

merit  except  with  their  express  consent,  he  failed  to  suggest.  Gov. 
LoDg  was  too  fast,  whilst  Gov.  Talbot's  council  hesitated  and  felt 
that  the  project  was  impracticable  and  unworthy  of  Massachusetts. 
For  if  the  state  cannot  discard,  how  can  it  annex,  and  let  the  Agri- 
cultural College,  in  the  words  of  Gov.  Long,  become  "  a  branch  of 
another  college"?  1  have  never  been  able  to  see  how  the  state  could 
''  support  and  maintain  "  a  college  if  it  is  made  an  annex  to  another 
college.  How  can  the  state  send  its  Board  of  Agriculture  as  over- 
seers to  another  corporation?  "At  least  one  college."  If  an  agri- 
cultural college,  so  called,  is  located  in  the  vicinity  of  another  college, 
it  still  cannot  be  another  college,  unless  it  rests  upon  a  separate 
foundation,  with  independent  and  distinct  professors  throughout; 
and  if  so,  there  can  be  no  saving  of  expense,  by  any  such  conjunction 
as  can  be  made  under  the  law.  I  understand  that  the  various  colleger 
under  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Universities,  each  rest  on  distinct  foun- 
dations, each  with  a  master  answering  to  the  president  of  our  col- 
leges, each  with  a  full  set  of  professors  and  tutors  throughout,  and  a 
chancellor  over  all.  E  plurihus  unum.  These  considerations  applv 
with  peculiar  force  to  an  agricultural  college  with  a  farm  attached. 
How  annex  to  Oxford  or  Cambridge  a  farm  of  four  hundred  acres, 
with  a  college  upon  it,  without  keeping  that  college  upon  an  essen- 
tially independent  foundation  ?  Nothing  resulted  from  either  of  these 
projects,  and  the  college  is  still  the  child  of  the  state,  to  be  supported 
by  the  state. 

All  the  governors  of  the  Commonwealth  but  two,  have  been  friendly 
to  the  life  of  the  college,  and  in  1883,  when  Gov.  Butler  took  the 
gubernatorial  chair,  he  thought  it  better  to  feed  and  nourish  it  than 
to  put  it  out  to  nurse,  or  send  it  to  some  legislative  Tewkesbury,  and 
did  what  he  could  to  revive  confidence  in  its  success. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  in  the  minds  of  many  friends  there  have 
been  some  disadvantages  in  the  location  at  Amherst,  because  of  its 
proximity  to  a  classical  college  ;  because  it  has  been  somewhat  diffi- 
cult of  access,  (a  trouble  which  will  soon  be  remedied)  ;  and  because  it 
has  not  attracted  the  beneficent  grants  and  bequests,  which  it  might 
have  received  if  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  great  city. 

As  to  the  first  consideration,  it  is  due  to  Amherst  College  to  state 
that  the  suggestion  is  made  solely  as  to  the  relations,  real  or  supposed, 
between  the  two  classes  of  students.  Amherst  college,  on  the  con- 
trary, has  not  only 'scrupulously  adhered  to  pledges  made  by  its 
president,  Dr.  Stearns,  when  the  location  of  the  Agricultural  College 


55 


was  under  consideration,  that  the  elder  college  would  urge  or  counte- 
nance no  movement  for  annexation  or  absorption,  but  would  do  what  it 
could  to  accommodate  the  Agricultural  College,  but  it  has  offered 
accommodations  at  times,  and  granted  the  agricultural  students  access 
to  its  library,  etc. 

Nor  do  I  think  the  college  has  suffered  much  from  the  last  consid- 
eration. Although  a  large  number  of  retired  gentlemen,  such  as 
formed  the  Massachusetts  Society,  have  shown  great  interest  in  the 
advancement  of  our  agriculture,  the  active  mercantile  and  manufac- 
turing interests  of  Boston  have  never  taken  interest  in  the  origin  or 
success  of  the  college,  whilst  the  metropolitan  press  has  almost  uni- 
versally and  constantly  depreciated  and  disparaged  the  institution. 
President  John  Adams^  who  was  in  1805,  president  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Society,  nevertheless  in  1812,  wrote  as  follows  :  "  We  say  and 
say  truly  that  agriculture  and  commerce  are  sisters,  and  their  inter- 
ests mutual  and  consistent ;  but  the  misfortune  is  that  individuals  and 
masses  of  both  orders  of  men  do  not  always  understand  the  existence 
of  both  interests,  and  instead  of  endeavoring  to  reconcile  them, 
employ  all  their  policy  and^  influence  to  counteract  each  other.  The 
merchants  in  all  the  seaports  discouraged  the  growth  of  wheat  in  the 
state.  Why?  Because  they  supply  us  with  flour  from  New  York 
&c.  and  the  article  constitutes  an  important  link  in  the  chain  of  com- 
merce. Agricultural  patriotism  is  one  thing,  and  mercantile  patiiot- 
ism  another  in  our  dearly  beloved  Massachusetts  ;  both  equally  sin- 
cere, both  equally  bona  fide.  You  will  get  no  aid  from  Boston. 
Commerce,  literature,  science,  theology,  are  against  you  ; — nay,  med- 
icine, history,  university,  and  universal  politics  might  be  added."  I 
do  not  adopt  this  extravagant  statement  of  Mr.  Adams  as  strictly 
applicable  at  present,  but  quote  it  as  a  curious  coincidence  with  the 
fact  I  was  stating. 

Neither  am  I  discouraged  by  any  indications  of  a  want  of  interest 
in  the  college,  or  in  the  number  of  its  students,  but  only  in  the  want 
of  funds  to  sustain  a  college  as  it  should  be.  The  Commonwealth 
cannot  do  for  this  college  what  it  pledged  itself  to  do,  without  money.* 
But  students  will  come  as  fast  as  we  can  accommodate  them,  and  do 

*It  ought  to  be  known  that  among  the  numerous  inquiries  by  letter  during  the  last  year 
over  ninety  poor  young  men  sought  admission  to  the  college;  provided  they  could  earn  their 
way  by  work  upon  the  farm  and  l)y  other  means.  Manual  labor  of  students  is  not,  of 
course,  profitable  in  itself.  No  one  could  do  more  good  in  the  educational  direction  than 
by  donating  in  whole  or  in  part  to  a  fund  of  .^lOO.OOO,  to  bo  known  as  the  "Manual  Labor 
Fund." 


56 

them  justice.  I  have  too  much  faith  in  the  progress  of  the  age,  to 
suppose  lor  a  moment  that  an}'  effort  to  develo})  an  accurate  science 
and  knowledge  of  gathering  succor  from  oui*  mother  earth  will  be  a 
failure.  Why,  in  1805,  I  read  that  Mr.  Morrill's  own  University  of 
Vermont  had  thirty  students,  and  one  professor,  and  he  was  the 
president.  I  had  just  entered  Harvard  in  1836,  when  she  celebrated 
her  second  centennial,  and  heard  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  recite  his 
verse  : 

"  Who  was  on  the  catalogue 

When  college  was  begun  ? 

Two  nephews  of  the  president,  . 

And  the  professor's  son. 

They  turned  a  little  Indian  b'y 

As  brown  as  any  bun. 

Lord !  how  the  Seniors  knocked  about 

The  freshman  class  of  owe."* 

Neither  am  I  discouraged  by  any  want  of  success  of  the  college 
either  in  its  instruction,  or  in  its  experimental  work.  Under  the  cir- 
cumstances it  has  far  exceeded  any  reasonable  expectations.  It  is 
remarked  by  friends  who  have  most  closely  watched  its  graduates, 
that  they  were  better  prepared  for  the  actual  work  of  life  than  those 
of  the  classical  colleges.  I  purposely  avoid  any  discussion  of  the 
philosophy  of  an  agricultural  education,  and  of  the  scope  and  sphere 
of  this  college.  My  province  is  confined  to  a  relation  of  facts  of  the 
past.  But  it  is  proper  that  1  should  remind  you  that  Agassiz  declared 
that  the  experiments  on  the  circulation  of  sap  in  plants,  and  their 
expansive  power  during  growth  are  worth  all  the  college  had  cost  the 
Commonwealth.  I  append  a  summary,  which  it  would  be  irksome 
now  to  read,  of  the  experimental  and  other  scientific  work  conducted 
at  the  college. 

On  the  use  and  effect  of  common  salt  on  grain  and  root  crops. 
1869.     Ooessmami. 

The  construction  and  repair  of  highways.      1869.     Miller. 

The  establishment  of  true  meridian  lines  as  the  basis  of  all  sur- 
veys.     1870.     Miller. 

Report  on  the  management  of  stock.      1871.     Dillon. 

Stassfurt-salines  as  a  potash  resource  in  agriculture.  1871-72. 
Goessmanyi. 


*Turn  to  the  Harvard  catalogue  and  you  will  flud :  In  IH-tS  4  graduates,  in  1640  and  1(>41 
none,  in  1(544  7,  in  164n  7,  in  1(54(5  4,  in  1647  7,  in  1648  5,  in  1652  1,  in  1(5.54  1,  in  1655  2,  in  1656  4, 
in  1672  none,  in  1673  4,  in  1674  3,  and  so  on,  whilst  the  class  oi  1(585,  consisting  of  14,  was  the 
largest  class  which  had  graduated  during  the  fifty  years  since  "  the  college  was  begun," 
and  twenty-two  was  the  largest  number  of  any  class  prior  to  171H. 


57 

The  growing  of  sugar-beets,  the  manufacture  of  sugar  from  them, 
and  trial  of.  their  vahie  for  cattle  food.      1871-76.     Goessmann. 

Report  on  sugar-beets  raised  on  the  college  farm.  1872.  Goess- 
mann. 

Fertilization  of  farm  lands  with  reference  to  commercial  fertilizers. 
1872-73.      Goessmann. 

The  circulation  of  sap  in  plants  and  their  expansive  power  during 
growth.     1873.     Clark. 

Practical  trials  of  new  implements  and  farm  machinery.  1873. 
Dillon. 

The  sources  of  supply'  and  the  quantity  and  quality  of  our  manu- 
rial  agents.     1873.     Goessmann.     , 

Investigations  of  the  quality  and  composition  of  commercial  ferti- 
lizers offered  for  sale,  and  the  protection  of  the  community  from 
fraud  by  legal  control  and  inspection.     1873-86.     Goessmann. 

Observations  on  the  phenomena  of  plant  life.     1874.      Clark. 

Experiments  with  compound  commercial  fertilizers  to  test  their 
comparative  agpicultural  value  and  their  value  as  compared  with  sin- 
gle elements.      1874.     Stockhridge. 

P^xperiments  to  determine  what  elements  will  make  practically  a 
complete  manure  on  our  average  soils.      1874.     Stockhridge. 

Laboratory  and  physical  examinations  of  the  South  Carolina 
phosphates  ;  trial  of  their  agricultural  value  in  the  raw  state  and  after 
treatment  with  acids.     1874.      Goessmami. 

Examinations  of  varieties  of  sugar-beets  raised  throughout  the 
State  of  New  York,  Lower  Canada,  and  the  Connecticut  River  Val- 
ley.    1874.      Goessmann. 

The  chemical  and  physical  condition  of  the  salt  marshes  of  the 
state,  and  the  devising  of  methods  by  which  they  can  be  made  avail- 
able for  agricultural  purposes.     1874-77.     Goessmann. 

To  determine,  in  feeding  substances,  the  proportions  of  different 
elements  of  nutrition  required  to  save  needless  expense,  and  to  pro- 
duce the  most  certain  results.      1874-75.     Stockhridge. 

Experiments  on  the  continuous  growth  of  crops  on  the  same  soil 
with  chemical  fertilizers  alone.     1874-75.     Stockhridge. 

On  the  dentition  of  domestic  animals.     1875.     Cressy. 

Experiments  with  different  varieties  of  potatoes.    1875.  Maynard. 

Investigation  of  dairy  products — oleomargarine,  Jersey,  and  skim- 
milk  cheese.      1876.     Goessmann. 

Examinations  of  animal  secretions  ;  variety  of  urinary  calculi,  etc. 
1876.     Goessmann.  8 


58 

Investigations  on  tiie  effect  of  girdling  fruit- trees  and  plants  to 
hasten  tlie  time  of  ripening  ancl  to  improve  the  quality  of  the  fruits. 

1876.  Goessmann  and  Maynard. 

Experiments  with  fertilizers  v"pon  sugar-cane  carried  on  in  Louisi- 
ana.    1876-78.     Goessmann. 

Examinations  of  various  vegetables  and  fruits.  1876-86.  Goess- 
mann. 

Examinations  and  trials  to  test  the  comparative  value  of  different 
methods  of  setting  and  treating  milk  in  the  butter-dairy.  1876-77. 
Southwick. 

Notes  on  compensating-powder ;  being  a  brief  consideration  of  a 
new    meclianico-chemical    explosive,    for    heavy    artillery    purposes. 

1877.  Totten. 

The  comparative  study  of  milk  of  different  breeds  of  cows  under 
the  same  treatment.     1877.     Goessmann. 

Contribution  to  the  chemistry  of  American  wild  and  cultivated 
varieties  of  grape  vines.     1878.     Goessmann. 

Investigations  on  temperature  of  soil  and  air,  and  on  deposition  of 
dew  on  the  soil  and  plant.      1878.     Stockbridge. 

Investigations  in  relation  to  the  evaporation  and  percolation  of 
water  from  the  soil.      1878.     IStockhridge. 

The  tilling  of  soils  of  different  characteristics  as  affecting  the  loss 
of  water  by  evaporation.     1878.     Stockbridge. 

Investigations  in  relation  to  the  comparative  temperature  of  the 
soil  and  air  by  day  and  by  night.     1878.     Stockbridge. 

Investigations  concerning  the  sacchaiine  qualities  of  several  varie- 
ties of  corn  and  melons.      1879.      Goessmann. 

The  growing  of  early  amber  cane,  and  the  manufacture  of  sugar 
from  its  juice.      1879.      Goessmann. 

Investigations  of  the  comparative  nutritive  and  feeding  value  of 
Northern,  Southern  and  Western  varieties  of  Indian  corn.  1879. 
Goessmann. 

The  determination  of  the  elements  of  plant  nutrition  lost  from  the 
soil  by  leaching,  and  of  those  it  retains.  1879.  Stockbndge  and 
Goessmann. 

Report  on  lysimetre.     1879.     Stockbridge. 

The  effect  of  chemical  salts  on  the  carbo-hydrate  contents  of  plants 
and  the  quality  of  the  fruits.     1880.     Goessmann. 

Experiments  regarding  diseased  peach  trees  (yellows,  etc.). 
1880-81.     Goessmann. 


59 

Experiments  regarding  the  influence  of  special  manures  on  fruits, 
etc.     1881.      Goessmann. 

The  system  of  preserving  green  food  in  silos.     1881.     Goessmann. 

Investigations  in  relation  to  unconscious  bias  in  walking.  1884. 
Miles. 

Investigations  in  reference  to  bilateral  asymmetry  of  form  and 
function.     1884.      Tuckerman. 

Experiments  with  new  varieties  of  fruit.      1887.     Mayiiard. 

Nor  should  this  college  at  this  hour,  and  especially  in  this  pres- 
ence, forget  to  present  its  congratulations,  and  send  its  God-speed 
to  its  twin  sister,  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  both 
sired,  in  equine  phrase,  by  "Uncle  Sam"  out  of  '*  Massa-chusetts." 

In  the  land  of  old  Laconia  •  ^ 

Where  the  Muses  still  abide, 
Alpheus  fair  and  young  Eurotas 
Flowed  ad  own  the  mountain  side. 

They  were  twin- born  lovely  children, 
Free  as  air,  and  fair  as  free, 
From  the  selfsame  fountain  springing 
Life  to  them  a  jubilee. 

Not  alone  on  far  off  hill- sides 
Twin-born  gifts  of  God  do  come ; 
Joyfully  we  hear  their  voices 
Near  our  Athens  here  at  home. 

It  is  also  our  joy  to  learn  that  the  legislature  has    just  presented  her 
with  a  conditional  dowry  of  $100,000. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  pleasure  with  which  a  year  ago  I  attended 
a  dinner  of  the  "  Associate  Alumni."  I  felt  somewhat  like  Simeon 
of  old,  and  could  not  well  realize  that  here  within  twenty  years  was 
this  fuU  bloom  and  fruit  of  a  college,  a  college  with  an  association  of 
graduates  indeed.  I  can  therefore  imagine  with  what  riper  pleasure 
you,  Mr.  President,  who  have  known,  and  taught,  and  guided  and 
advised,  from  the  day  the  first  student  was  admitted  here,  and  with 
what  pride  and  satisfaction  Mr.-  Morrill,  came  to  this  celebration. 
These  are  his  jewels.  These  are  the  beginning  only  of  those  long 
processions,  which  from  every  state  and  territory,  I  trust  to  the  end 
of  time,  will  come  and  go,  rejoicing  in  the  lamp  of  knowledge  which 
he  will  have  presented  them,  and  recognizing  him  as  their  father, 
even   as  the  Jews  said  "  we  have  Abraham  for  our  father."     We 


60 


alone  are  leading  the  processiou  with  more  than  350,  besides  those 
who  have  dropped  out  by  the  way.*     Yes,  they 

"  are  coining,  Father  Abraham, 

Five  hundred  thousand  strong"  ! 

The  future  graduates  of  these  38,  uav  50,  60  colleges,  more  numer- 
ous than  the  seed  of  Abraham,  tracing  their  lineage  from  no  myths, 
like  those  of  Greek  or  Roman  story,  seeing  clearly  that  they  were 
conceived  and  born  of  no  unholy  passions,  suckled  by  no  wolfish  or 
beastly  natures,  will  thank  God  that  it  was  from  the  far-seeing  brain 
of  a  wise  statesmanship,  that  these  colleges,  like  Minerva,  from  the 
brain,  and  not  the  lust  of  power,  sprang  into  life.  This  morning 
from  every  English  fireside,  with  million  voices,  have  rolled  the  notes 
of  the  national  anthem,  for  a  woman  who  during  fifty  years,  as  maid, 
and  wife  and  widow,  with  feminine  dignity,  and  the  respect  of  all 
men,  has  sat  upon  the  British  throne.  But  Victoria  herself  has 
accomplished  little  as  a  ruler,  or  law-giver.  Have  we  not  greater 
reason  on  this  year  of  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  passage  of 
the  bill  which  gave  us  life,  and  which  put  Agriculture  on  the  throne 
to  which  she  is  rightfully  entitled,  to  exclaim  "  God  save  the  Senior 
Senator  of  Vermont !     To  him  be  the  honor  to  the  world's  end  !" 

And  before  we  shall  have  lain  down  from  our  labors  here,  I  look 
forward  to  the  time  when  the  college  hall  will  be  decked  with  the 
painted  images  of  those  who  have  been  the  creators  or  benefactors 
of  this  institution.      I  would  have  here  Morrill,  the  statesman  and 


Living. 

Dead. 

Total. 

Living. 

Dead.    Total. 

Bachelors  of  Science,  260 

8 

268      Non-graduates, 
DEGREES. 

372 

34 

406 

Alumni. 

Non-Grad.  Total. 

Alumni. 

Non-Grad, 

,  Total. 

M.  D.,                              14 

11 

25     Ph.  D., 

2 

1 

3 

Jur.  D., 

1 

1      B.  D., 

1 

1 

LL.  B.,                              7 

1 

8     D.  D.  S., 

1 

1 

2 

D.  V.  S.,                            5 

1 

6      B.A., 

2 

2 

B.  Sc.  (Boston  Univ.)  127 

127     C.  E., 

1 

1 

B.  Sc.  (elsewhere)          1 

5 

6     E.M., 

1 

1 

V.  S.,                                 1 

1 

2 
OCCUPATIONS. 

Alumni. 

Non-Grad.  Total.  . 

Alumni  Non-Grad. 

.  Total- 

Ordained  Clergymen,     4 

1 

5     Lawyers, 

9 

7 

16 

Physicians,                     11 

11 

22     Dentists, 

1 

1 

2 

Veterinary  Surgeons,     6 

I 

7     Teachers, 

17 

10 

27 

Journalists,                     8 

3 

11     Engineers, 

18 

9 

27 

Chemists,                       17 

4 

21     Architects, 

1 

1 

Agricultural  pursuits,  84 

105 

189     Business  pursuits. 

.     70 

155 

225 

Army,                                1 

2 

3     Navy, 

1 

1     . 

Miscellaneous,               10 

37 

47     UnknoAvn, 

3 

25 

28 

61 

lawgiver ;  there,  the  veiierableness,  geiitlemaiiliness,  energy,  and 
proud  beauty  which  shone  in  the  countenance  of  Wilder ;  and  over 
against  him,  the  earnest  face,  the  eager  eye  and  nervous  vigor  of 
Chirk,  the  young  man,  enthusiastic  for  the  future ;  there^  the  schol- 
arly, professorial  portrait  of  Chadbourne  ;  here^  the  frankness,  honesty, 
guilelessness,  common-sense,  and  friendliness  which  so  mark  the  face 
of  Stockbridge  ;  and  I  would  not  fail  to  find  a  picture  of  benevolence, 
generosity,  modesty,  and  sadness  lit  by  a  heavenly  smile,  which 
were  illustrated  in  the  person  of  William  Knowlton.  My  gallery 
would  include  still  others  among  the  living  as  well  as  the  dead. 

And  when  in  after  time  the  long  list  of  the  faithful  and  devoted  ser- 
vants of  the  college  shall  be  scanned,  one  will  be  found  who  from 
1867  was  professor  of  modern  languages  and  English  Literature  ; 
from  1867  to  1869,  instructor  in  gymnastics  and  military  science;  in 
1869  lecturer  in  entomology  ;  in  1869  and  1870  instructor  in  zoology  ; 
from  1869  to  l^<71  instructor  in  anatomy  and  physiology  ;  in  1872  and 
1873  instructor  in  history  ;  in  1885  and  1886  librarian,  and  finally  in 
1886  president  of  the  college,  Goodell's  name  "  will  lead  all  the 
rest." 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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JUL  14  1969  43 


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